Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Marc St Louis on October 15, 2016, 02:01:24 pm
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Someone who has been selected to appear on the reality show Alone contacted me recently. As he said, "I have one slot left to fill and it was either a shovel or a bow", he went with a bow. He wanted to know what would work, seems like Vancouver Island is where they film this show. I told him something simple using a wood that resists moisture, I gave him my reasons which are irrelevant here. The species I suggested, all from NA, were Yew, Osage and ERC, in that order and the design is one I have found to be quite effective, mostly native inspired. He has tentatively picked Yew but it did get me to thinking about the ERC and how it would behave with the design I picked. It turns out that it does quite well.
The bow is made from 3/8" ERC boards, I think they are used mostly for chests. Being a board they had to be backed and I used Maple for that. I sort of figured that being only 3/8" think that I would need a slightly thicker backing to get the draw weight up a bit so the backing is just over 1/8" think at the center. I also glued in a thin power lam extending past the handle area. The boards were only 4' long so I cut 1 in half then used a tapered finger joint to splice the 2 pieces together. The small recurves were steam bent and the reflex glued in. Final specs are 61" long overall with 1 1/2" wide limbs. The draw weight ended up at 47# @ 28", I was hoping for over 50# but I would have needed to make the bow shorter for that of added more thickness to the inner limbs, extending the power lam might have done it. I glued in 5" of reflex and it kept close to 4" of that, so far. I shot it a few times and for a 47# bow it spits out 550 grain arrows at an impressive speed. The humidity in my shop while I was making the bow stayed at around 70%, I'm sure that Vancouver Island has that beat. Here are some pics
The first pic is the backing being glued down and after removal from the form.
(http://i.imgur.com/nlmIMAe.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/00No3tO.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/7II2aEl.jpg)
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That's a beauty Marc, I always like your bows. I'm about a 100 miles south of where they film and this morning the humidity is 94% and the temp is 50 F. Tell him to wax it a lot ;D
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Man, id love to be on that show. Nice bow Marc. So, maple is an appropriate backing for cedar. If thats the case, is bamboo too much? Did you trap the back, the belly, or are they same width?
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I like the shape of that. Nice bow! Cheers- Brendan
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Marc that is really a text book bend there. You gotta be getting everything out of that one with that bend beautiful. Of the shows I watch I kinda like that one they have some pretty good people on there and not all the drama like the format sure hope he gets something with it. I think I'd rig it up for fishing if I was taking it there I'll be watching for it
Bjrogg
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Just sat down here to put some pictures on and here's the bow wood from you that I'm making too at the moment.....lol.Sweet looking bend on that bow Marc.You got a good amount of poundage out of that width and thickness.I've always wondered and thought red cedar might do ok in high humidity.Like yew in that regard.I've watched that Alone program quite a bit myself.I think the record is something like 70 to 80 days??
Now just so has it I'm tillering another ERC too.....lol.I've got some pictures to put up with some questions.I'm just about to my draw weight with it.
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Great retention of your reflex also.I bet it does shoot pretty decent.
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Cool bow, really slim profile!
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I like that, Marc. ERC gets a bad rap. The one thing I learned with staves is the sapwood is better and more stable, and when on the Tiller tree, when it feels like it wants to stop bending, you better stop.
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Thanks guys
Well this is NOT the bow he will be taking, he wants Yew.
Maple and ERC work well together, both the Maple backing and the Cedar are the same width. I don't think I would use Bamboo on ERC.
The board from the package was a good one. I had to orient it a bit to avoid the odd larger knots but besides that it was pretty clean.
I could have made the bow a bit shorter, that would have brought the draw weight to 50#. As it was I didn't need to do any scraping on the inner limbs, just some sanding to get rid of tool marks
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Marc, Bamboo is a good backing for cedar. My Grandson's Dad has one that I gave him over ten years ago that he still shoots. Brian Melton made it.
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Beautiful!!
Marc, Bamboo is a good backing for cedar. My Grandson's Dad has one that I gave him over ten years ago that he still shoots. Brian Melton made it.
So it should be rather thin? Maybe 10% of the total thickness?
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Nice! I haven't worked with a wood that is lighter in hand than ERC. Pretty, too.
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I hear this season will be in patagonia.
Last fall the one lady with all the fish was in one of the cublocks I engineered.
Beauty bow however.
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I don't believe he will be in this coming season
Good to know Eddie. I still wouldn't use it, mostly because for me Bamboo is hard to get and I have an abundance of Maple which works quite well
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Excellent bend Marc, and beautiful wood. I have a sinew backed ERC that I need to post.
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What glue did you use for the backing? Great looking bow! I have some nicer ERC boards and some pipe straight maple staves.. I want to try this!
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I used TB3 to glue the backing down
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Beautiful Bow Marc. :)
Pappy
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Very nicely done, Marc. Jawge
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Cool little bow, Marc.
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very nice thanks for sharing :)
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Thanks guys
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I bet that's a joy in the hand. Always a pleasure to look at your tillers, Marc.
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Awesome combo Marc, I love ERC, it's very similar to our Rocky Mountain Juniper
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very elegant bow and bend....better than I would have expected for erc...well made
Dave
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Nice. Looks like a shooter to me.
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Thank you guys
Not sure what you men by that Dave. I have made several ERC bows both self and backed and never had any problems. The wood is elastic and can tolerate a D section profile
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I didnt mean anything negative Marc, I have never used this wood to make a bow, so looks like I have the wrong impression of it I just always think of cedars as a soft wood , not something I would choose to make a bow from....obviously I'll have change my opinion of it ..not sure if I grows where I live, I'll have to look into it and try it one day...
dave
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You do realize of course that ERC is not a true Cedar but a Juniper
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I just looked it up and found that out, I didnt realise it before!!..we have junipers here in higher areas but never seen anything suitable for a bow...I'm inspired to look harder now though
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You probably have the scrubby common Juniper which I believe is the most widespread plant either in the Northern Hemisphere, the entire World or both.