Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: radius on October 23, 2009, 02:40:41 pm
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Hey guys,
Second to last one for a few months.
62" or so, total length. 50# @ 28". Wow fast. Accurate. I was going to give this one to a guy who promised to drive me four hours out of town to pick up a load of yew logs. We were gonna do that today. No luck. Maybe tomoro.
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/NomadArchery/ylb10/Picture015.jpg)
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/NomadArchery/ylb10/Picture009.jpg)
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/NomadArchery/ylb10/Picture013.jpg)
Next several weeks are totally full of work for me, plus moving, and then i'm going abroad for 3 months...Hope i can still pick up that wood next spring.
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this full draw pic is upside down...the limb pointing downwards is actually the upper limb.
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Great looking gift. I hope you get the logs sooner and not later.
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cromm, where you living at? I'm going to be in england most of december and january. Maybe we could hook up. Staying in York.
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Man Radius you have made more bows in the past few months than I have made in my entire life!!!! Good work on this one as well. Tiller looks great! :) -josh
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Great bow!
Yes you are some sort of bow-making machine!
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Hey, that's some real sweet tillering, I love that almost semicircular look.
It was worth the effort wrestling with that sucker.
Del
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That's an awesome bow. The tiller is excellent. :) Jawge
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beautiful! you're sure getting these down pat!
Phil
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Wish I could shoot it. Very nice and bookmarked under Oct BOM for self bows.
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Really like the tiller, genius!
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You guys, i really appreciate all the encouragement and praise i get from sharing my work with you. It helps me to keep trying, learning, experimenting, knowing that people want to see this stuff!
This is the second to last bow for some time now, after this long run. The last bow is almost done, and i'll post it probly tomoro. It is for Helen, my wife...who wanted "a pretty recurve that is easy to shoot."
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Wish I could shoot it. Very nice and bookmarked under Oct BOM for self bows.
Be great if one day somebody from this site shoots one of my bows, and i get to shoot one of theirs! I hung out with ravenbeak before, but we didn't go shooting, just hunting yew.
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Hey, Scott. Awesome bow. Perfect tiller. You're becoming the yew master, especially with those knotty pieces.
What are you doing in England? I have a good friend who lives in York, and I was lucky enough to visit him for a couple weeks last summer. Are you going to go visit Pip Bickerstaffe? He's a reasonably decent chap, and I got to spend an afternoon in his shop.
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Radius I watched all your threads with Yew bows, awesome work. You gave me the confidence to do the latest Yew bow with knots. Soaking them in super glue seems to work. I have to say I am jealous of your great supply of yew. It is my favorite bow wood to work, and I think the coolest looking.
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Thanks for the good words guys.
Adam: About Pip, yes, i emailed him and told him i was coming to england for seven weeks and asked him to give me a week's work at his shop. Showed him a couple pics, my son's yew longbow and the yew recurve for my father in law. He said they were "interesting". That's all he said. Haha. Asked me about obtaining warbow-capable pieces of yew. He gave some very strong opinions about yew, which i would like to share.
According to Pip Bickerstaffe,
1. 15 to 20 rings per inch is all you want: too many means the wood had insufficient nutrients and will not hold up.
2. wood density is the best measure of its usefulness as bow wood.
3. warbows, even of the best materials, become "shot out" within a month of hard use
4. it's more common to find firewood than bow wood in a yew tree.
He did not offer me a job at all. But maybe...my wife's gonna be working still when i get there, so i'm gonna have lots of play time.
Pip said, "I have made over 15 000 bows, and i'm starting to understand what wood can do."
gotcha
Bushbow:
i like that bow you made, the yew stiff-handle bows i've made have all taken too much set.
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You did a fine job with that bow
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Radius I shot the bow for a couple of hours yesterday, it seemed to hold up OK, maybe an inch of set, I will see how it goes. I have made only one bend thru the handle bow, a 56" hickory bow patterned after an indian bow. It kicked like a mule, no doubt due to poor tillering on my part, plus hickory is relatively heavy. I will have to give it another try
Have you read Pip's book Heritage of the Longbow. I think it is a really informative book. I started that bush bow using the dimensions in Pip's book for an ELB, which is where the stiff handle originated.
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haven't read it yet, no...but i'm sure i'll pick it up when i'm over there
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IM jelous ! Been huntin one just like it ! ...Cant find one though ! LOL Great work !
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Nice looking bow,well tillered. :)
Pappy
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Nice bow Radius, Tiller looks excellent. Can you post a pic of the unbraced profile.
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Thanks guys. No, Keenan, i actually don't have a pic of that! And i'm out of town right now, working on a tv show in vancouver, of all things! When i get back i will take a pic and show you. It's weird though. The bow had a LOT of reflex originally. Like a bow i made a couple weeks ago, it would actually bend BACKWARD when initially strung. As i had been advised with the first one, i shortened the string alot and forced the bow to hold a braced shape of maybe 3 or 4" at the center of the stave. It caused a kink in the lower limb not too far out from the handle. However, the kink doesn't show in the drawn bow, and the arrows streak out like crazy. Plus, i just love this one. It's simple but cool...hard to make an ugly or boring bow with yew.
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(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/NomadArchery/ylb10/Picture010.jpg)
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/NomadArchery/ylb10/Picture011.jpg)
unbraced for keenan
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That is a fine looking bow.
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Love the bow.
One of these yew type bows boggles the mind. I think one has to make one to really appreciate them. They can be ugly, no-one who sees my bows appreciates the yew bow. They all ohh and ahh at the osage bows. But its one of my favorites.
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same here, i love the yew. I think i got a ride to the yew stash that buddy has promised me, next week i hope to pick it up on saturday. 6 logs! Give one to the man who's driving. Man, what am i gonna do with 5 logs of yew?
Today was a hallmark day for me, bowmaking. End of a season. Next time i get back into bowmaking, i will have a whole freakin pile of seasoned staves a-waiting in the nothing box. I shot a few of the bows i made this summer, including the yew holmegaard with the stepped-down handled and tip inlays, the 60" oak recurve, and this one. They are all good. The recurve is smooth all the way back, and pretty accurate. The holmegaard has a hella wallop. But this longbow is extremely fast and accurate, and powerfully hard-hitting. It is the one i like the most. You make so many bows and some are for other people specifically, i wonder, which one should i call Mine? I'm going with this one.
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/NomadArchery/ylb10/Picture012.jpg)
(http://i283.photobucket.com/albums/kk314/NomadArchery/ylb10/Picture013-1.jpg)
Quick draw is my style. I sight the target, draw while focusing on the target, and release at once. I find that i pull short draw often, like 25" or so. This is a great bow. The bullseye was from a full ear draw. The 2nd photo is deceiving: i actually hit the center 4 times, but one of the arrows was deflected by hitting another.
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hey Scott,sweet stick.you did great work...but,i do have a question...pip said that 15-20 growth rings per inch is o.k....but,i all ways thought the more growth rings per an inch was better...so,why does every one bragee about 30-40 growth rings...just trying to get it right for some bow making...thanks john
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i'm guessing if they brag, it's because they don't really know what they're talking about...who knows?
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John, Check out the yew ring count thread. We have been having a discusion about this on there.
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Nice primitive bow.
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Radius, that backstop kind of looks like you are shooting your bow inside. Last time I did that (after my wife went to bed) I found out that an arrow Can go thru a phone book and put a hole in the couch. My wife is not keen on shooting in the house. ;D
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yes definitely shooting it inside. >:D
little drywall filler and we're good to go
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Thanks for the good words guys.
Adam: About Pip, yes, i emailed him and told him i was coming to england for seven weeks and asked him to give me a week's work at his shop. Showed him a couple pics, my son's yew longbow and the yew recurve for my father in law. He said they were "interesting". That's all he said. Haha. Asked me about obtaining warbow-capable pieces of yew. He gave some very strong opinions about yew, which i would like to share.
According to Pip Bickerstaffe,
1. 15 to 20 rings per inch is all you want: too many means the wood had insufficient nutrients and will not hold up.
2. wood density is the best measure of its usefulness as bow wood.
3. warbows, even of the best materials, become "shot out" within a month of hard use
4. it's more common to find firewood than bow wood in a yew tree.
He did not offer me a job at all. But maybe...my wife's gonna be working still when i get there, so i'm gonna have lots of play time.
Pip said, "I have made over 15 000 bows, and i'm starting to understand what wood can do."
gotcha
Bushbow: so I guess he has made a thousand bows a year for 15 years??? ??? makes you wonder how much time he can devote to each one :-\
i like that bow you made, the yew stiff-handle bows i've made have all taken too much set.
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i know i know: i take it to mean he runs a workshop and takes credit for all of them
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Wow, a warbow is shot out after 100 shots, that's depressing:(
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Hey, Scott. Awesome bow. Perfect tiller. You're becoming the yew master, especially with those knotty pieces.
What are you doing in England? I have a good friend who lives in York, and I was lucky enough to visit him for a couple weeks last summer. Are you going to go visit Pip Bickerstaffe? He's a reasonably decent chap, and I got to spend an afternoon in his shop.
hey Adam,
is your friend an archer, too? I'm sending 3 bows there right now, and one of them is not spoken for. yew shortie, 52@27" . Maybe he'd be interested in it?
Scott