Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: AndrewS on April 07, 2007, 08:02:42 am
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Hi,
just another bow I will show you guys:
She is made out of a board of elm I found a few years ago in the holydays 'cause the hotel has furniture of elmwood from a local carpenter. I phoned him and a few days later I got the board.
The first bow was for my wife.
This one is the second bow out of the board: 62" NTN, 45 lbs @27", 1 1/2 " wide after the fades until midlimb and the tapered to 3/8" at the tips. The tips with a tiny little recurve. she is backed with cherrybark from local forest 8), the grip is from leather with a lacebinding and she is a got shooter. After shooting she has less than 1" stringfollow.
At last the bad message: Full draw pics are available after my wife will have time to take the pics ;)
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Good Job on the bow! That cherry bark isn't one piece right?
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Right Earl, the cherrybark are 3 pieces. Two pieces of nearly 31" and for the missing bark at the grip I put on a third piece of bark as an overlay but this one is only 10" in length :)
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Man thats a pretty bow Andrew, the cherry bark really sets her off.
Can't wait for the full draw pics.
DanaM
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Very nice bow. What type of Cherry bark is it?
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Nice job Andrew, I made a hickory backed osage bow with cherry bark on the back as a decoration, it looks cool, but kinda hard to work with I thought. ;D
Marc, thats what we call pin cherry, or fire cherry. :)
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finally (this is the bow i mentioned in the cherry-bark-quiver-thread). i really like this bow. andrew, you should have said something. we could have taken the pictures on wednesday, when i was at your place. ;D
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That is a beautiful bow, Andrew. Jawge
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Good looking bow, and the cherry bark backing looks great.
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I did a cherry bark backing a few years ago and love the beauty of the bark...coppery. I believe the guy I got it from called it choke cherry but I don't remember. The only place I've seen it around here is at higher elevations along the Blue Ridge PKY but it is illegal to harvest it there. :( Hillbilly may know the botanical name.
Because the bark has to be remover from around the tree(not along its trunk) the size is limited so piecing is necessary in most situations. Mine also had 3 pieces. The guy that gave me the bark suggested I use 2ton epoxy to install so I did with good success. My only problem was I didn't pre match the bark before I installed it ::) so it looked patchy...but good none the less. The bark is stiff so you need to cut to shape first before installing.
Andrew, This is a beautiful bow. I love the copper color and the natural irregularities of the surface of the bark. Pat
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Pat, I remember your cherry-backed osage, looked good. You can get some good sized pieces of bark off Mazzard cherry (Prunus avium), which is probably what's on Andrew's bow here, it's a European species. There are alot of them naturalized around Asheville. They get big, and have the nice coppery underbark. We remove them as invasives sometimes, I'll grab us some bark the next time I cut one. I haven't seen much chokecherry (P. virginiana) around, and they're usually small and shrubby. There's a buttload of fire/pin cherry (P. pennsylvanicum) along the parkway above 5000' or so.
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Those are the ones I was talking about...along the Pkwy. Pat
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very nice bow andrew! i like the braced profile with those recurved tips. the cherry bark looks awesome too! i have choke cherry around here but they are more like bushes. we do have black cherry that grows wild but theres not many around. ill keep my eye out for now on, -jesse
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Very nice bow using a more unusual backing.
Sean
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i'm not sure on ours but it could be prunus avium or prunus padus.
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Thanks for your compliments guys :)
I dont know the sort of cherry - it is growing in the forest in my neighbourhood. I took the bark from dead trees cause you can take off the bark more easy when the tree is dead for a couple of month.
I glued it on with resorcin glue.
All in all very hard work with the bark to put it on.
And here are the FD pics:
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Hope you like this serie of pics ;D
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Very nice Andrew. Tiller looks right on! Pat
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Crank this bow back to full draw and show us what you got.
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Hey Don, how about some of the last pics? ;)
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I like the sequence pics of the draw, you can see the limbs loading.
Beutiful tiller
DanaM
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how about this one? ;D
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Great bow! Cherry bark is such a beautiful backing. Looks like you've good some good material there too. Great tiller by the way. Where do you live? Pacific Northwest?
J. D. Duff
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oh man now ive got another project to try. excellent job. peace
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Thanks again for the compliments.
Thanks Dusty for the new picture.
J.D.Duff: I live in the middle of Germany and it is a long way to the sea but the way to the pacific is much more longer ;D
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Very good Tiller! Good job! ;D
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Score! Got this neat bow set up now Andrew for April Self Bow of the Month
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Very nice Andrew,thats a beauty.Nice tiller and I like the bark backing. :)
Pappy
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A fine example of German engineering and craftmanship. Justin
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That is a beautiful bow Andrew, congratulations on job well done.
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Andrew,
I just found a dead cherry tree while riding my road bike last week. I harvested enough 2" wide strips for probably 4-5 bows. I have some questions for you:
1. How did you dry the strips?
2. How long did you let them dry?
3. Which side of the bark did you apply? It looks like you applied it backwards. What I mean is that you have the inside skin of the bark facing the outside.
4. What did you finish the bow/bark with?
Thanks! Joe
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Joe, On the cherry bark bow I did the bark was sent to me dry but I wouldn't imagine it would take long, especially since the tree was already dead. I put the bark down the way it was on the tree. There is lichens and other stuff growing on the outside that should be taken off. I think I used steel wool and got a nice copper color. Use any finish that you would normally use on bows. By the way, It was suggested to me to use 2ton epoxy, which I used but I think that TBII or TBIII would work fine also. Pat
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great bow andrew, really like the pulling sequence!
how about a cherrybark backing build-a-long??
frank
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@330bull
Hey Joe (oh man I'm Jimi Hendrix fan ;D)
For drying I put the bark flat between two boards.
I think you have to dry the bark one or two month. My bark had dried about 8-9 month, cause I haven't time to work with the bark so long.
At this bow I apply the inside of the bark to the wood. But I think you can make it also inside out (I made a quiver this way). I have cleaned the bark with a scraper and steel wool and then i glued the bark on the elm with a resorcinol glue, but another glue like Pat sayed will work fine (a buddy of mine glued the bark on with white carpenter's glue and a hot iron! - don't tell your wife that you need the iron for glueing a back on your bow ;))
Before glueing you have to cut the stripes to the exat dimensions of the back, cause the bark will break easy if you try to put it around the edges from back and side.
I finished this bow with tung-oil, then shellac, after that tung-oil and at last I waxed her, but every finish you normally use will work.
Good luck and I can't wait to see your cherrybarkbackedvinemaplebow 8)
Andreas
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Great looking bow, the bark is such a deep rich color.
VB
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Great information, thanks! I'll do a build along when I apply the backing in a few months. Joe
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beautiful bow....well done
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Hey Joe ;D
it is nice to help people in doing primitve skills especially in bowbuilding.
And thanks again for your compliments to the others.
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i really enjoy the information flow on this side!!!
cheers, frank