Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: turtle on March 15, 2007, 10:39:09 pm

Title: DogWood bow
Post by: turtle on March 15, 2007, 10:39:09 pm
  I made this bow from a two inch ground sucker. This was my first experience with an arched back.It kinda tapered itself in width as i tillered it. Bow is 63 1/2" N.T.N .1 5/8" at fades tapers to 1 1/2" at mid limb then to 1/2" at nocks. Lower limb goes i little wider than top limb in a couple of places due to rather large knots. She shoots where i look with minimal shock, but not quite as snappy as i was hoping for.

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Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: turtle on March 15, 2007, 10:47:47 pm
 Itstarted out with 1 1/2" of natural reflex but now has 1 1/2" deflex when first unstrung.

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Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: turtle on March 15, 2007, 10:53:46 pm
 For some reason my PC locks up if i try to send more than 3 pictures at once.

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Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: turtle on March 15, 2007, 11:06:58 pm
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Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: tpoof on March 15, 2007, 11:46:45 pm
Thats a fine lookin piece of Dogwood!  ;D The artwork gives it a great rugged look! At brace and full draw she don't look so bad either!
Nice job!  :D ;D
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Justin Snyder on March 15, 2007, 11:55:56 pm
That is a good looking bow.  What length are the limbs.   I like the paint job. Justin
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: OldBow on March 16, 2007, 12:00:19 am
Very nice. I assume this is a Southern dogwood? Ours (here in W. Montana) would never get large enough.)
Excellent tiller. And Bookmarked for March Self Bow of the Month.  Thanks for the post.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Coo-wah-chobee on March 16, 2007, 12:07:37 am
           Good lookin' bow....nice work.............bob
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Badger on March 16, 2007, 02:18:45 am
  The tiller looks real good, as does the entire bow, if you feel it is not as snappy as you hoped for maybe the moisture was a bit higher than you expected, dogwood seems to hang on to that last few points of moisture kind of stubbornly and shoots best pretty dry. Steve
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Pappy on March 16, 2007, 06:14:13 am
Very nice turtle,the tiller looks great.I like dogwood it make a nice bow,but like Badger said it needs to be dry.Good job. :)
   Pappy
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Dustybaer on March 16, 2007, 07:08:28 am
nice bow, turtle.  i particularly like the paint job.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: DanaM on March 16, 2007, 07:42:42 am
Great job turtle, nice tiller, interesting paint scheme. I like to see bows made from different woods.

DanaM
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Hillbilly on March 16, 2007, 08:31:14 am
Good looking bow. You did a great job of working with the knots and dippity doos.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Minuteman on March 16, 2007, 08:35:13 am
Fine bow. I'd throw it in the hotbox for a coupla weeks and see if it's cast improves.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Ryano on March 16, 2007, 10:25:31 am
Thats a fine looking weapon! nice art work as well.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: turtle on March 16, 2007, 11:18:21 am
       Thanks for all the kind remarks.
Justin.......limbs are 27 1/2" from fades to nocks
OldBow.....i dont know what species of dogwood it is...white flowers/red berries/redish inner bark,but it gets a lot bigger than that peice.
Badger & Pappy....this stave had dried in a shed for year and a half..i checked it with my moisture meeter it was below 7% thats as low as my meeter reads. I think slower than expected cast is due to highly arched back causing high amount of non working mass. But the only bows ive made before this were always osage so it could just be me.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Hillbilly on March 16, 2007, 11:46:00 am
Don, flowering dogwood, Cornus florida, is a medium-sized tree that can reach over 40' in height and can have a trunk up to 18" or more in diameter. It has really hard, dense wood. It's also the state flower of NC.

(http://www.litzsinger.org/weblog/archives/Cornus_florida.jpg)

(http://www.ibiblio.org/openkey/intkey/images/Cornus_florida_flowers02.jpg)

(http://www.earlham.edu/~biol/brents/field_botany/wildman1/dogwood1.jpg)
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: OldBow on March 16, 2007, 12:22:32 pm
Nice dogwood pictures.  My wife's from Alabama. She liked them, too.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: duffontap on March 16, 2007, 12:54:39 pm
Nice looking bow.  At first glance I thought you'ld gotten your hands on some crazy snake skins.  How much set did it take? 

          J. D. Duff
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Rich Saffold on March 16, 2007, 01:11:51 pm
Turtle, Its a great looking bow ;D  Osage does handle humidity better I'm quite sure, and perhaps your bow picked up moisture as opposed to losing it during the building process depending on the local humidity..

Good tree pics Hillbilly..Been looking for one here, lots of flowering trees where I live..

Rich
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Agbowyer on March 16, 2007, 01:19:56 pm
That's a fine looking bow. I too really like that artwork. We have dogwood, but I haven't tried it yet. You've inspired me to look for some. Hillbilly, I had to show my wife the pics. She was the Dogwood Duchess for her town in rural East Texas.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Hillbilly on March 16, 2007, 02:04:52 pm
Yeah, the dogwoods really make the woods come alive here in mid-April. Dogwood also makes good flintknapping billets for working stuff like quartzite and rhyolite, and is great for making wooden wedges (gluts) for splitting logs. Disclaimer: I didn't take those pics myself, just snagged them off the web.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: mamba on March 16, 2007, 08:15:14 pm
Nice work Steve.-cool art work.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: turtle on March 16, 2007, 08:28:38 pm
  J.D.  ..... This stave started out with  1 1/2" reflex (natural) now has just under 1 1/2" deflex when first unstrung.
Hillbilly ...... I was wondering if this local stuff was flowering dogwwod or not....now i know. Thanks ;)

Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: AndrewS on March 19, 2007, 08:50:30 am
A fine bow.
I like bows from "little trees" ;D. They have a lot of character.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Marc St Louis on March 19, 2007, 09:30:45 am
Nice looking bow
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: GregB on March 19, 2007, 02:21:14 pm

I like it! Very nice job... ;)
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: ber643 on March 19, 2007, 06:57:36 pm
I love the bow, turtle. I really like everything about our Southern Dogwoods here in NC (except the leaves and berries in my Koi ponds, and how easily the hurricanes toppel them into the house or porch  :'(). We plant them, transfer 'em, give 'em to neighbors, etc. I'm going to have to take some bad "leaners" out soon, and a friend and I hope to get a bow or two out of them. This thread is very interesting to me. I have pulled the FD pic, and one of the decoration detail, for my Traditional Bows Drawn pages (Page10) and will be posting them directly. If you decide you don't want them there I will pull them though. Thanks for the thread in any case.

http://residents.bowhunting.net/bsdunn/index.htm
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: PepeLep on March 19, 2007, 07:02:04 pm
That's a nice looking bow. It looks great at full draw.

I might have to walk the woods and see if I can find a good dogwood to scrape.
:D
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: jignfrog on March 19, 2007, 08:38:00 pm
Very nice bow. looks great.

jignfrog
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: turtle on September 27, 2007, 09:20:30 am
   I pulled this thread back up to say that the slow cast WAS a moisture problem. I had left this bow sit since the original post until last week. I got it out and was completely surprised.It now shoots a 600 grain arrow with more authority than i would of thought possible. It is now the fastest bow ive ever built. Just goes to show you not to doubt the advice ya receive on this site.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Pappy on September 27, 2007, 09:37:22 am
Glad to hear it,I have had the same thing happen with Hickory.Now you need to try and seal it more to keep as much out as possiable.Again fine lookig bow. :)
   Pappy
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: david w. on September 27, 2007, 09:45:54 am
good work nice bow :)
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: Pat B on September 27, 2007, 10:45:19 am
Turtle, Just because the bow wood is dry, it still has to season or cure. This can take a year or more. In that time, a lot can happen with a wood bow.
  I have a nice, tall, straight flowering dogwood I will cut soon and look forward to giving it a try.   Pat
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: makete on September 27, 2007, 01:13:10 pm
Nice bow and good advice.
Title: Re: DogWood bow
Post by: gpw on September 28, 2007, 09:27:34 am
That's why we store our bows inside ,on a rack , up high , away from the floor/humidity...