Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Santanasaur on December 24, 2020, 03:30:47 pm
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This one’s made from a sapling of pignut hickory. It has an asymmetric deflex-recurve design, which is why the top limb is larger and bends more, like a yumi but much less extreme. I chose this design because the stave was short and the deflex wasn’t in the center, so that sort of dictated the handle position.
The bow draws 35 pounds at 28 inches, fairly lightweight but smooth and comfy for relaxed target shooting. It’s 60” ntn, about 1” wide across the top limb and 1.25” for the bottom. The top limb is about 3” longer.
The stain is Lamy blue fountain pen ink, which is scraped off of the interlocking ridges from the back of the tree, leaving the streaky effect. The handle is buffalo leather and is tooled with antler tines and homemade stamps. The recurves are bent with steam and locked in with dry heat, and the limbs were heat treated under a radiator.
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a few more
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That bend is something else! Love the short, mild recurves. As always, fantastic work!
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Simply, magnificent.
-Fox
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Yeah.... I’m all about that bow. You did an outstanding job on that sapling. Lots of folks don’t like working with saplings, or sapling bows in general, but they are fast becoming my favorite. Just something about creating a good functioning bow out of a twig of wood. You added to the function by making that bow into art. I like it.
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Very nice work, beautiful bow in all aspects. :)
Pappy
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How do you find a sapling with a flat back? Every sapling I find up to about 3" diameter has a pronounced crown. Yours looks like a nice flat back. Sweet tiller - nice bow.
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really like that finish work. Looks like you burnished the limbs very well.
Purty bow.
Shawn~
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Thanks everyone.. I’m not so sure about the blue stain in terms of my own taste, but I do enjoy going a little bit crazier with the colors on light bows.
Barebo—this sapling had an oval cross section, so there was a flatter side I used for the back. It was too small to split, so I just roughed it out straight from the sapling. There’s a little strip of pith right under the handle leather
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I mean the bow is cool...but can we talk about that awesome tool rack holding your rasp and gouges!
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I mean the bow is cool...but can we talk about that awesome tool rack holding your rasp and gouges!
Here’s the setup Allyn. All the tool mounts are from wiggly sassafras quarterstaves
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Looks really good. Working on a hickory sapling bow myself right now. Having trouble keeping the belly of one limb from chrysaling. I will have to lower draw weight to save it I guess
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Real nice looking tiller on that narrow piece of hickory. Bow looks great so does the shop!
Mike
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Lovely bow...great workshop :)
Del
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I agree lovely bow. Great workshop.
Bjrogg
PS maybe I could come over and mess it up for you.lol
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Nice! Can you explain what kind of radiator you used to heat treat the limbs and how you used it?
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The bow and shop are both just fabulous. I am totally going to copy everything when I redo my shop this summer (no really, this is the year it's going to happen)!
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Nice! Can you explain what kind of radiator you used to heat treat the limbs and how you used it?
It’s a fairly generic wall mounted space heater I got off ebay, very similar to the setup SimK uses. It’s suspended with grow light fixtures so the height is easily adjustable. I keep the bow in a little portable vise at an angle because the thinner tips usually go a little quicker.
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Great looking bow, well done.
Awesome looking workshop. And an organized workbench..
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That is a clean sharp looking shop, you can be just as proud of that as you can your bows