Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: tom sawyer on January 19, 2008, 02:12:11 pm
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I have a friend named Tony who is an excellent bowyer. He sticks to the primitive end of bowyering and has a definite style he prefers, namely, bendy handled R/D profile osage selfbows. His nocks are particularly distinctive, they are really petite. I really like this style of bow so I asked him to craft me one when he found time. In spite of going through some serious trials and tribulations these past few months, he found time to make a bow for me. I got an email from his wife earlier in the week, and I was champing at the bit to get over and see my new bow but only had time to get it last night. I had high expectations, and even so I was extremely surprised with what he turned out. Well maybe not surprised, but definitely in awe of his skills.
Stats on the bow are as follows: 57" n/n, 50lb@27", roughly 1.25" at the handle and tapering to just under 3/8" at the nocks. I had to throw in a pencil to give you the true perspective of the size of his nocks. Because of their size and the very small loops he uses on his FF strings, you HAVE to string and unstring using a stringer. Lots of character in both limbs. R/D side profile, tillered so all wood is stressed evenly at full draw. This is evident in the full draw shot, where you see the outer limbs look fairly straight. This is because they are bending farther due to their initial reflex. This is the smart way to tiller such a profile IMHO. Rubbed with a little red stain that resides primarily in the spring wood, its subtle but you can see it in the wood in pic of the bow's name. Finished with Formbys tung oil, my favorite finish for osage. Has a leather grip and mink strike plate for a Native American feel.
I'd like to sibmit this for BOM for him. Hope you enjoy the photos as much as I am enjoying shooting this bow.
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Wow Lennie, that's a real beauty. I really like the braced profile and the full draw looks great too and those small tips are sure to add some speed to it. Great bow.
Alan
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Oh my that is a splendid bow. The tiller looks right on for that profile and those tips, well, what more can you say about those - perfect. My compliments to the bowyer.
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Tell him congratulations on an outstanding bow. That looks like a great shorty brush bow. You are fortunate to have so many guys around you into this kind of thing. Danny
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That is an outstanding bow for sure, I hope Tony and Jessica are doing well, they have sure been through some tough times.
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Beautiful work!!! ;)
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Beautiful job on that bow, I love bows like that. Doesn't appear to be stacking at all. Steve
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What a terrific bow. I always admire those who can make those unique nocks. Miine always look like a thumb.
I really think you should keep that bow away from the sack of charcoal, at least for photos. ;D
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Are you sure that's not 67"? ;D That's a lot of draw for a 57" bow. Wow, great design. I'm working on something similar out of Yew but I think I'm going to have to use quite a bit more wood than he did. Great bow.
J. D.
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The tiller looks exceptional. I love the efficiency of such a bow. Thanks for sharing it, I'm sure it will do well in BOM. Justin
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Tony has really fine tuned this design and his execution of same over the last several years. His hunting bow this year is very similar. He had some concerns about me tuning arrows to the bow, but my standard arrow (29", 125gr, 50-55spine) is coming off clean and hitting where I'm looking. The bow is a very good performer.
I haven't shot much lately, I ended up shooting one arrow down the hill into the weeds and another into the wooden post next to the bag target.
I agree with everyone's comments about the bow.
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Great looking bow. Wow. Awesome. I'm running out of complimentary adjectives and interjections, but it deserves a few more. Looks like he squeezed every drop of bow out of the stave.
PS-that's a mighty fine looking pencil you have there, too. ;D
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Really is an outstanding bow lennie, I like everything about and am really jealous
that you have green grass ;) BTW did the sinew arrive yet?
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Different. I like it. ;D
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Petite,is the word for that bow. I like it.
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Hillbilly, thats a character pencil.
Dana, the box got here today and looks excellent, thanks. The grass is green, frozen that way I guess.
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Very R/D bow. Congratulate your friend for all of us. And Blood Shot will be a nice entry for Jan BOM.
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Beauty! Enjoy it in good health. Jawge
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Very nice indeed.Great display of craftsmanship.Congrats tradrick
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Yep, a very slick lookig bow there. Anyone would be proud to own such a fine weapon.
Sean
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I nice bow, I like this r/d short bows.
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Your friend makes a very nice bow Lennie. Not sure that "primitive end of bowyering" and FF go hand in hand though :)
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True I guess we all draw our own lines in the sand. B50 or FF, all those fibers are synthetic. I don't know that a sinew string would work on this bow, the grooves are tailor made for a skinny FF string.
Tony's "line" prevents him from making backed bows, other than sinewed. In a way I think he's getting better at what he's doing by focusing on a particular design, whereas I branch out so much I never remember what I learned from the last given style I worked on. I'm having fun though.
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Sweet looking bow lennie,I know you will enjoy that.All looks great to me. :)I bet it is pretty fast. :)
Pappy
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Bow itsself actually looks pretty aboriginal overall. Nice
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I'm working on a short little sliver of apple right now, I might try this design out Lennie. Thanks for posting.
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I like what you created! Nice shape, nice bending! Keep on the good work on the search to the perfect bow.
I`m still searching!
yregards Uwe
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I thought that design would be up your alley Ryan. Should be easy money after making those short stiff-handle recurves. Wasn't taht last bow you posted that was painted of this sort of design? Good luck with the apple.
Snedeker, the fur wrap and the character of the wood certainly give it a primitive look. The fur strike plate is actually quite effective and comfortable too.
Uwe, my friend made this for me. What I do, is dabble.
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Oh man thats a cool pencil
....and the bow isnt too bad either
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I should have included more pics of the pencil. It is pine, 7" long, 1/4" diameter, holds a sharpening well and writes 40 words per minute with few mistakes.
A sure-fire winner in the POM contest.
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Great bow Mr. Sawyer! You sure do crank out some great bows quickly. I think you may need a bigger trailer to showcase your bows this year at the Tn. Classic. ;D
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As I stated initially, this is a bow that my friend Tony made for me. I won't be claiming to have made it for several more months yet.
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My apologies. ;D
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That's a good looking bow, I might have to try a similar design myself sometime. :)
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Really petite in features, no excess wood on that one. I also like the nocks. He does fine work
VB
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That's a real beauty....any chance we could get a close up pic and or description of how he did the mink strike plate? haven't seen anything like that yet in my short time here. Also, did you know if he stained the areas with streaks a special way to make them "pop out" ? have some staves with streaks like that i'd like to have them look like that.
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That is sweet! I really like the r/d "D" style bows. Crazy how good they shoot! Bet that mink feels real good! ;)
Rich
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I don't know how he applied the strip of mink, I would expect contact cement. I'll ask him when I see him next, which probably won't be for a week or so. Same thing for the red stain, I assume he wiped it on briefly and then rubbed it off pretty hard to remove it mostly from the summer wood. It would stay in the pores of the spring wood though, and it does look nice. I've seen osage with natural streaks like this too.
Yeah Rich, that mink feels as smooth as a baby's...ear.
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I would sure like to be able to build a bow like that. I bought my first Bois D'Arc stave on e-bay and am waiting for it to arrive. I have no idea how hard it will be to try to build something like that yet.
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Congrats on your acquisition. I think you'll find that a bendy handle design is more forgiving to make that the stiff handle design. Adding a little reflex here and a little deflex there, is no big deal with osage.
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Lennie,
Do you mean a "D" bow that has a consistent width and bends throughout?? I was thinking of following TBB. They described a method to chase a ring. I thought that type bow had a fairly rigid handle that thickened around the handle, then flared out and thinned thickness on each stave half. I need to brush back up on that section. I may not have understood what they were saying. Can you refer me to a style like you are thinking about? I'm new to this and value your opinion.
Jess
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I've wrapped lots of beaver, mink and other furry animals on grips. Usually I like to use the white glue that we all used in school, or tb2. They both stick down the hides of these creatures to wood very quickly..Just cut a strip that fits, and glue it on...
You can use contact cement too....
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Jess, the design I refer to as a "D" bow, has a consistent width that is more or less maximal at the handle and starts to taper either immediately or at around mid-limb (where it starts, is kind of a metter of personal preference and how much width you start with). This bow bends through the handle, in fact it often appears to bend more in the middle half of the bow than at the tips. It usually has a fairly circular tiller, with a bit stiffer tips just to maintain a decent string angle at full draw.
There is often some confusion about names on these. It might be because the letter "D" has more of an elliptical shape, which is the preferred tiller for a stiff-handled bow. The design I described above, is a "D" in the sense that the whole piece of wood bends and contributes to the stored energy. It allows you to use a shorter piece of wood for the bow. The tradeoff (there's always one of these isn't there) is that you are holding onto a spot that bends and it can result in a little more hand shock depending on the tiller and the poundage of the bow. I think Baker (in one of his TBB articles) recommended this design for bows up to 50lb. I know you can go to 60lb and still not have a bow with poor manners, but you'll want to keep tips small. This is why my friend uses these very small tips, he hunts with a bow just like he made for me only its 60lb.
Rich, great I always have some Elmers laying around. You can even lick off the excess that way. Don't try that with contact cement.
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This is Jesica here...Tony's wife. He loves to make bows. His knocks are tiny. I will print this topic off and take it up to Tony's room to get some questions answered. He makes bows in our basement...Osage dust and all. I buy his supplies and let the rest to him. We have been at Barnes since Tuesday of this week for Seizure Monitoring. The staff here at Barnes has been so very wonderful to us. This all will make his day. :)
Thank you for the kind remarks. I've tried to suggest Bow of the Month to Tony before, but he is much too humble for any recognition.
Lennie...great pencil!!!!!
Take care,
Jesica
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You and Tony are staying at a barn in the middle of St Louis?! You country folk know how to live. Watch out for Clydesdale droppings, step in one of those and we might not find you again.
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That's us....shackin' up in the big city. Even have us a cleaning lady. Too bad she can't come home with us.
Jesica
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Dang Jessica, you guy's are living large now Huh?? Just kidding, gotta keep your sence of humor as you know. I hope they nail down Tony's ailment. God bless you guy's.