Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on April 02, 2013, 11:55:19 pm
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I finished this Elm bow a little while ago for a guy in Ohio. He wanted a bow that he could shoot targets with and also do a bit of hunting. Being able to shoot both left and right he wanted a shelf on both sides of the handle. He also wanted a fairly light bow with enough performance to hunt Deer size game so I heat-treated several inches of reflex into the bow, it kept a couple of inches of that. The bow is 67" long with 1 5/8" wide limbs and pulls just over 40# @ 29". Performance is pretty good. Here's a couple pictures
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/Selfbows/Elm%20Bows/Pyramid%20bow%20for%20Michael/Braced.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/Selfbows/Elm%20Bows/Pyramid%20bow%20for%20Michael/FullDrawRightHand.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/Selfbows/Elm%20Bows/Pyramid%20bow%20for%20Michael/FullDrawLeftHand.jpg)
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Sweet Marc,
I like the double shelves. Heck of an unbraced profile. I enjoy seeing your bows now and then when you post them.
Thanks,
Gabe
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Looks good Marc. That is a nice reflex profile you put into it. I tend to come in under weight if I go for that much reflex, by the time
I get it on the short string I seem to think its stronger than it actually is. I'll catch on to it eventually though. :)
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Beautiful bow Mark! The reflex in that thing is crazy. I just finished up a two way shooter myself.
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Lovely bow and my kind of weight too. :)
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sweet looking bow :)
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Very nice Marc,tiller looks sweet. :)
Pappy
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That un-braced picture tells the story. ;)
Great looking bow.
Elm is just great wood isn't it, when it's heat treated it becomes almost magical stuff.
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Held good reflex. Nice work!
Tracy
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This was a good piece of Elm, came from a small tree I cut about 15 years ago. Sometimes you cut some Elm that is great and sometimes you get some that is not so good.
The lower limb on this bow has a small amount of character to it
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Nice full draw - full draw pic, I like to see the arrow all the way back like that in a picture, its the shape of things to come! That's a tiller to aspire to.
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It is nice to see your bows again Marc. Always stellar. I'm begining to think that an elm bow is in my near future as I have seen a few posted on here lately that are getting my juices flowing. I better go harvest me some soon so I have something to work with. Nice job. Danny
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Really nice job on that one, Marc. I love the unstrung reflex profile, especially when you get the full D shape when drawn. I am not sure if you posted a shot of the belly. I was curious on elm whether you had to brown the belly to get that much reflex.
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thats a dandy mark. i have been an elm fan for a long time. and theres no doubt in my mind it will make meat.
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Nice bow :)
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I heat-treat right after floor tillering and I get the belly a dark brown. By the time I have finished tillering the bow there is only a slight discoloration of the wood left.
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As always, a very nice bow. Marc, have you noticed any difference in sapwood vs. heartwood in Elm? I ask because the Elm I have tried seems to have extremely brittle sapwood. I think it is Siberian Elm - but it was really poor stuff. Just curious about your experience.
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I love that sweeping even reflex in the unstrung profile. Very nice bend too.
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Full draw shows it all..... really nice grip and shelf work!!
Does it shoot equally well off either side?
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Very clean bow, i'm sure it packs more punch than normal with that reflex.
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That's a beauty Marc, love me some elm. Looks like it oughta be dead on it's target mass as well. Outstanding :)
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Very nice. Pyramids rule. I make nothing else. I like elm too. Would not have ordered the shelves, but the customer is the boss.
Jim Davis
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Perfect. 8)
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Excellent bow
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No muss, no fuss, no bother. Straight to the point design, bet it is a good shooter, to boot!
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The difference is not in the heartwood versus sapwood but in the tree itself. I've made some very short all heartwood bows from Elm that stood up quite well and some average length sapwood bows that did not stand up well at all. This particular tree had very elastic wood.
I did shoot it a few times left and right handed and it does shoot quite well either way.
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Very nice bow...still no moose! :laugh:
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Looks like a St Louis bow to me! ;)
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What variety of elm is it?
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Your looking in the wrong place for that Moose :).
I was wondering when someone would ask the species. I don't bother trying to identify Elm anymore, there's just too many sub-species. I know it wasn't Corky Bark Elm nor was it Rock Elm, some of the species that grow up here in Ontario
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I heat-treat right after floor tillering and I get the belly a dark brown. By the time I have finished tillering the bow there is only a slight discoloration of the wood left.I hope this is the right place to ask a question. I'm in San Diego and I don't know where to look for Elm. Would a Hardwood lumber supplier have it? What is the actual name of this wood?
Thank You
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The genus name for Elm is Ulmus.
Now I know that there has been a lot of talk about Red Elm here lately but if you do a bit of research you will find that there are a number of species of Elm that have Red as a common name. Slippery Elm is called Red Elm but so is Cedar Elm and English Elm as well. Now Slippery Elm is moderately dense wood but Cedar Elm is one of the most dense species of Elm out there and most likely an excellent bow wood.
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Nice bow and job on that bow Marc.Your customer should be happy.Being ambidextrias[not sure of spelling] would be handy hunting or target shooting.
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Real beauty and fantastic tiller. Like it a lot. :-) What is the difference betweeen the type of elm in North america and the wych elm that is commom here in Norway? I have made a lot of fantastic bows with wych elm. My favourite bow wood. :-) Your bow looks a bit like a classic Holmegaard. :-)
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Besides the working properties I couldn't tell you what the difference is between Wych Elm and North American Elm as I've never worked any. It is similar to White Elm in density but with strength properties closer to Rock Elm so I would imagine that it is a very good bow wood.
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The full draw picture is amazing. That is perfect tiller. I agree with what has already been said about elm. We have winged elm down here, and with a good heat treating, it is amazing bow wood. Even with my "gorilla tillering, I am always in a hurry to finish" way of doing, I have yet to break an elm bow. Now if I could just find someone who enjoys splitting the stuff......
Awesome work as usual Mr. St Louis.