Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on April 14, 2014, 09:07:32 pm
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The limb timing thread and George's post made me think of a bow I was requested to build a couple years ago. The man was a member of the SCA and was going on a hunt and for the hunt he wanted a bow that he had seen on a tapestry in England. I don't remember exactly what he called it but I think it was a knobby bow so that's what I'm going with. Now I never posted pictures of this bow, I should have, and the unfortunate thing is the flash drive that had all my bow pictures, and other info, crashed a few months ago. I was able to salvage many of the pictures with a program and many of them were on a back up I had made a few years ago. I did lose quite a lot of them though, including a picture of the tapestry with the bow on it. The frustrating part is the way the program works that saves the info is that it merely saves the info unsorted >:(. The only images I was able to recover of this bow is a handful from when I was tillering it out.
The bow was made of Elm, by request, and 64" long. The limbs were 1 1/2" wide at the center, flat bellied and tapering to 3/4" wide at the tips. He wanted something with as many knobs on the back as possible. The stave was straight, just knobby. It came out at 55# @ 26". Not much point posting pictures of the bow at different stages of tillering so here is the first and the last one of the series.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/Selfbows/Elm%20Bows/Knobby%20Bow/Tilleredto22.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v355/Marc-St-Louis/Selfbows/Elm%20Bows/Knobby%20Bow/KnobbyBow.jpg)
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Yeah, I guess you could say it is knobby! Don't see you post a lot of character bows, Marc, this one is sure a change-up!
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Looks good to me .
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That's a pretty cool looking bow Marc. Did you client make meat with it?
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The drive crash taught me a lesson, back up, back up, back up.
No I don't make many bows like this. It shot well enough.
I don't know if he ever took anything with it.
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Nice bend Marc. Probably no secret but knobby, bendy handle bows are my favorites . :)
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Don't think I've ever seen elm that knobby. Is it American Elm?
I love the character bows. That one has a great look to it.
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Nice :) I'm working a a slightly knobbly elm myself at the moment... I'm worried it's destined for the woodpile, but I'm trying to change the future :P
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Marc, thanks for sharing this one. Since you brought up 'the timing thing' and how this particular bow caused you to reflect on that theme, would you elaborate on that topic to help a novice bowyer 'connect the dots'. I suppose I could hunt n' search though mountains of online stuff to find out about 'timing' concepts, etc but I'd really appreciate hearing what a Master Bowyer would have to say. Thnx -Ron
ps. Looking at your posted bow pics I have a hard time believing that knarly piece of wood would bend much let alone tiller so nicely.. truly remarkable.
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Zenart - trees with branches don't all break do they? >:D
As the amount of knots etc goes up so does the skill level required to get a good bow out. Knots are not fatal but straight lines through knots generally are.
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Zenart - trees with branches don't all break do they? >:D
As the amount of knots etc goes up so does the skill level required to get a good bow out. Knots are not fatal but straight lines through knots generally are.
mike- yeah, get that part but 'the timing' thing… how's it relate to knots/knobs? it's obviously something advanced as it seems its just a given thing. But I'm not up on this one and would like to know.
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That's a beauty,love them kind of bows,timed or not. ;) :) :)
Pappy
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Cool bow :)
Must have been a pig to get that smooth tiller with all those bumps?
Del
(Are the knobs adjustable? If so do they go up to 10, or 11? >:D ;) )
Maybe we should have a crazy bow contest running over the year?
I recall one with a pair of open jawed snakes heads at the grip a while back.... well if I'm honest I remember the scantily clad lady posing with it most :-*
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That was a stave that came from a tree I cut at least 15 years ago that was growing on the side of a hill. The one side was shaded by other tree and the other had full sun so the tree was studded with branches on the sunny side. I had been hanging onto it, could be I'm a wood hoarder to :D.
It wasn't I that brought up the timing thing. I've been arguing against it for years. Really, any bow can be tillered to feel right in the hand when drawn. Character bows are a bit more of a challenge though since you have to deal with areas of wood that, for their sake, shouldn't bend or bend very little in relation to the rest of the limb. These areas add unwanted mass to the limbs and if those areas are near the tips then they will add to hand-shock. This bow had a larger number of knots in the lower limb so it was consequently stiffer.
The tiller is not that smooth Dell. There are some knots that are stiff. Pity I lost the rest of the pics.
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Yep. Very cool looking bow. I like 'em all at different times for different reasons, but the knotty ones are always special.
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I noticed how that knob on the bottom limb near the tip almost looks like it has a little backset. I'm sure that's caused because it just doesn't want to bend there. I usually have to squint real hard when I'm tillering a character bow so I can see the true arc.
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There might have been a bit of reflex there, It's been 2 or 3 years now and the memory is not as good as it used to be plus I don't have any other pictures to jog it.
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I like it when those lumpy stave make it to bow!!!
Very nice bend!!!