Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: joachimM on June 19, 2015, 04:28:03 pm
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Yes I know, not what you call a regular design :P
Initially, four years ago it started as a 172 cm (68") pyramid bow with flipped tips, drawing 45#. Made from a red oak log that had bugs in the sapwood, so I reduced it to the first (lightly crowned) heartwood growth ring.
Due to an accident during transport, one tip broke off, so I piked it, narrowed the sides etc. I could draw it anyway to 30", so it was quite overbuilt though it had taken a good 6 cm / 2.5" of set.
It's a bendy handle due to a beginner's mistake of not keeping the handle deep enough during stave reduction (yielding a lot of handle set), but it didn't turn out that bad. As a matter of fact, the original bow was the first not entirely crappy bow I ever built.
this bow is 152 cm ntn (60"), and the handle set gave a good excuse to make it RD, with 10 cm / 4" tips set forward about 2.5 cm /1"
It currently draws 58# at 26".
Dimensions: 4.5 cm wide at the fades to 0.8 cm at the tips, 2 cm thick at the 2.5 cm wide handle. 1.4 cm thick along most of the limbs.
flipped the tips with steam (don't have good experience with dry heat bending on red oak). After that, I flax-backed the tips to make them a bit stiffer as they used to be a bendy lower limb. Without retillering it drew exactly 55#@26". After a few dozen shots, however, a splinter lifted on the back so two days ago I decided to back the bow entirely with a thin layer of flax (1 mm). Retillered it to 58# at 26" (from 60# at 22" right after backing). Currently it has 4 cm / 1.5" of net set, which is a remnant of the old bow. I can live with that.
I may reduce it further to 50#, not sure yet. I'll shoot it a bit first to see if I like it enough.
Joachim
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Very cool. Nice job reworking your bow. I've redone a couple and it's gratifying to turn 'em into better bows.
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Nice job bringing it back to life. ..
My red oak/hickory board bow lifted a tiny splinter and I backed it with a bamboo yarn/twine kinda stuff I found at a hobby shop. ...
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Tiller looks great. My experience with using flax as a backing isn't great in the long run, but I foolishly glued it on with Tite Bond when I tired it a few times many years ago.
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Fantastic it must be great to get a really nice Bow out of one which had not turned out as you'd hoped. :)
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thanks for the nice comments, Sieddy, Bowmo, Paco664, GB.
I did some chronographing over the weekend, and got just about average readings I guess, not that I expected anything extraordinary with such a decent amount of set.
At 55# and 26", and shooting a 630 grain bamboo arrow the best I got was about 145 fps (11.5 gpp), and about 165 fps with a 400 gr arrow (7.3 gpp)
It never was a really great bow, and it probably never will be a speedy performer either. But sometimes, that's not the point, is it? I enjoyed every bit of making it, and still have to sand it, give it a decent finish and put a nice grip on it.
Joachim
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Good job dude!
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I dunno but those speeds sound good to me. .. i wouldn't wanna play catch with an arrow at that speed. .. lol. .
Nice work!