Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: upstatenybowyer on March 12, 2017, 01:57:54 pm
-
Osage may be king, and Yew Queen, but Plum deserves a title as well.
After years of wanting to try this wood, I finally got my hands on a nice, fairly straight sapling about 2" in diameter. Before I set to work I reread Baker's description and recommendations for working it and decided to rough out a bow right away.
As for thickness and width I kinda just went with my gut keeping it as wide as possible (a little less than 1.5") out to mid limbs, then tapered down to a little less than 3/8" at the tips.
Once she was roughed out I weighed her, and clamped her down to avoid warping. I let her dry for about 2 weeks (Baker says a roughed out bow should dry in about 10 days).
I then checked the weight, waited another week and checked the weight again. It had not changed, so I set about tillering. I must have gotten lucky cause it took very little removal to get it braced and drawing close to 27" at about 55 pounds. However...
I had cut temporary nocks and as I was pulling on her, the string loop forced one end to "de-laminate" on a growth ring about 6" down the bow from the tip. So I glued it up with CA, wrapped it with sinew and put overlays on. The handle wood also popped off, so I glued that up and wrapped it with sinew as well. Both fixes appear to have worked cause I've been shooting the bow for days and have had no issues.
Man does it shoot comfortably, fast, and quiet. The bow took absolutely no set at all... astounding.
67" ntn
rosewood tip overlays (thanks to Greenriver)
hemp handle wrap
flemish twist string
54# @ 27"
-
a few more
-
Plums look beautiful in color and you did a really nice job. Too bad its very difficult to find proper piece to use as it grows around here all twisted and bent.
-
Congratulations.Always good to see a bow make it from a couple of minor fixes.Spot on tiller.One of these days I'll get ahold of some plum too.
-
Nice job. I've got a piece of plum waiting in the wings but it isn't as straight as that :(.
-
Very well done
-
A good-looking bow. Was this wild plum (Prunus spinosa, aka sloe or blackthorn) or a cultivated variety?
-
Thank you guys.
Strelets, it's American Plum (Prunus americana), which is the only species we have here in NY.
DC, It's an awesome bow wood. Get the piece outta waiting and into the shop! :BB
Ed, I'll remember you'd like to try it and if I come across any more I'll set some aside for ya ;)
Thanks Stalker and Morgan :)
-
Nice job on that one. The tiller looks really good.
-
Nice work. Plum is beautiful wood, I'm about to get into my plum stash as well
-
Another nice one congrats (R
-
Nice tiller upstate. That plum has nice color. The stuff I have has a lot of purples and pinks in it. Can't wait to try some of mine either. Cheers- Brendan
-
Plum is indeed marvellous bow wood. I'm finishing one myself. Can't wait to get her sister started as well.
Beautiful job and good repair!
-
Thank you kindly once again. BTW the bow string is made from BCY DynaFLIGHT 97.
-
She looks plum crazy upstate. I've got my eyes out for plum to. Not sure I'll ever find any and if I do I doubt it'll be Wild. When I was a kid we had one growing by our old shop but I'm pretty sure my grandpa planted it. I've never seen a wild one around here.
Bjrogg
-
Cool.So you had about a good inch of wood thickness to add more wood onto the handle then to get your finished handle thickness?What kind of wood add on did you use?That no set makes me smile.That length makes em an all day shooter for sure.I've got a KCT bow D/R holmgaard 68" TTT that just shoots sweeter than honey too.
Well you've been working wonders with shorty osages and I remember you wanted one completely as a self bow.No backing at all.We could work something out in the future probably.
-
Very nice looking bow. Great job
-
bj, I'll bet dollars to donuts it's out there, but it is hard to find. Around here it likes shrubland and transitions into thicker woods where there's small pools of standing water. It grows between the pools.
Ed, that KCT bow sounds like money in the bank. That's another wood I've always wanted to try, but certainly will never find up here so... I'll look for some more plum and you look for the KCT and... you get the picture. ;) One thing about plum is it does check like crazy and while it was drying a crack developed lengthwise on the handle which lead to that handle-wood popping clear off during tillering. So I just glued it right back on and wrapped with sinew. No other wood added. As for the no set, yeah I did okay with the tillering but I think plum's so good in compression that I really can't take that much credit. Others have said they got almost no set with plum either.
-
Plum has it's fickleness then but just while drying.KCT does grow here naturally.It turns a violet pinkish color when heat treated and likes it.The woods got a good cast.Pretty decent bow wood really.I'll keep an eye out for some.Spring is around the corner here.
-
Great looking bow! Never tried plum but now its on my to do list if i could just find some. Glad to see that rosewood going to such good use.
-
Great looking bow, and like others have said nice save!
-
KCT?
-
KCT = Kenntucky Coffee Tree
Hey man you are really a machine! Are you doing something different than bow building?
Good looking bow btw., I too like wild plum. Too bad they like to check and twist.
I looked again and again at the fd pic, can't help the lower limb looks longer than the upper - or have you canted the bow?
-
Thanks a bunch Greenriver. That rosewood does look awesome. Thanks Redhand. I love the bend on that one you just posted.
Simson, I'm a teacher and do bows in my spare time. We just had a huge windstorm on Wednesday of last week and there was no school on Thursday or Friday so that left me a lot of time for :BB not to mention a ton of downed sugar maple to start splitting! Believe it or not the bow is totally symmetrical. I propped the phone/camera up and set a timer on it, so the angle could be off. Anyway, thanks for looking!
-
Very nice job, I love plum.
-
Very well done. Good looking bow
-
Fine looking bow upstate
-
Very fine work! Way to stick to it and get a great bow!
-
Badger, Marc, Aaron and DuBois, thanks very much for the encouragement. :)
-
Hey Upstate what do you teach? I'm a shop teacher myself (woodshop and engineering) here in western Mass and like you I love the time it affords me. I'll be in the basement tomorrow with this huge storm coming working on one of 4 bows I got going right now.
-
Jeff....Did you make the belly of that plum flat or rounded?
-
Very shallow D section.
GR, special education grades 3-5. I enjoy it. Been at it for a little over 10 years. Were supposed to get that storm as well but I doubt if school will close. Our SI is a die hard for keeping it open. Have fun building! :BB
I take that back, no school!
-
Your tiller looks great! I have yet to find a decent plum stave in my neck of the woods. Most of them are gnarly, short and twisted around here. That sure is pretty wood and you did a great job with it.
-
Nice bow :) I've been looking for plum for ever...the only ones I've seen are in the garden of a castle....they would require a midnight visit dressed in black to cut ;)
-
Howard and Mike,
Thank you both for looking. :) There's no doubt that it's a hard wood to find. My luck came when I remembered a friend of my Dad's who owns a bunch of land outside the city. I got permission to poke around and after an hour of searching... Eureka! As soon as time and weather permit I'm going back!
-
Nice bow, makes me want to learn a little more about plum and try to find some.
-
"the string loop forced one end to "de-laminate" on a growth ring about 6" down the bow from the tip. So I glued it up with CA, wrapped it with sinew and put overlays on. The handle wood also popped off, so I glued that up and wrapped it with sinew as well."
This is funny because I have literally had every single problem with plum I can imagine.........except this one. It checks while drying, has wildly barber-poled grain, warps, bends, fights me on heat straightening, and always has a thousand knots where I live, but never this..... And despite all the issues, I am starting to love it, too. I have a really high success rate (not breaking bows) despite the drying issues.
H Rhodes: "Most of them are gnarly, short and twisted around here." I didn't know there was any other kind! But, when I can take a 36" X 2-1/2" leaning, curved branch or sucker of twisted, knotty wood, saw it lengthwise with a chainsaw, splice it, wrestle it to symmetry, and still make a mighty shooter, well, I'm cutting all I can find.....