Thanksgiving Bow (finished)!

[criveraville]

George is that the bow you said you were making me for Christmas

Looking good

Cipriano

[gstoneberg]

LOL Mr. C.   I'm working on a bow for you, but you know it isn't this one.  I haven't pulled it off the caul to look at the second flipped tip.  I'll do that tonight.

Thanks all.
George

[gstoneberg]

One last picture before I resign myself to the wait and ignore this thing for awhile.  The wrap is off and it looks OK.  The sinew pulled in away from the limb edges more than I'd like, but I think it'll be just fine.



Mr. C, I never did get that final twist taken out of your bow.  Spent too much time playing with BOM pictures.    Tomorrow perhaps.

George

[gstoneberg]

Well, I couldn't stand waiting any longer and began tillering this little guy today.  Took a bit to get it to bend enough to put a string on, but here it is strung:



There's a decent sized knot in the right limb a little inboard of mid-limb.  I left it a little thick, but now I see it's stiff there, which makes sense.  Duh.  It is pulling 55lbs at 21" right now.  I tried to get a picture of it at 21" pulling with 1 hand and taking the picture with my phone with the other.  Didn't work very well.  Looks like it's only back about 18-19" and I moved the camera.  Anyway hopefully you can see well enough to critique the tiller.  Otherwise I'll go take another picture after I've evened out that right limb.



Uhgh, looks pretty bad.  I can see I need to get some  bend in the handle if I'm going to get the last few inches of draw I want.

Thanks,
George

[MWirwicki]

Its gonna be cool!  You're almost there!  Can't wait to see it myself...

[gstoneberg]

Well, it's further now, though I still can't take a good full draw picture.  Here's brace now:



And once again I can't get it all the way back one handed.  It pulls 55 at 27", but this is only about 25".  I'm trying to get the handle bending just at full draw, but I'm gonna have to get Mary to take a full draw picture to see if I'm getting it.  Looks like I have the 2 limbs bending slightly differently.  Sure easier to see in the picture.  It has taken a little set, I expected that with such narrow limbs.  Gives it a nice D/R look.



I popped the sinew loose along the limb edge in 2 places.  One is by the handle and I did it with the vise, the other is out about 6 inches from the tip and I did it with the scraper.  Might fine tune the tiller just a little more, glue those 2 spots back down and then glue on a backing.  I'll look at my snakeskin stash when I go back out to the shop.  Wish I had some of those beautiful carp skins.  Gonna have to take bowfishing a little more seriously this spring. 

George

[hammertime]

Nice looking sinew job George, coming along nicely! gonna pull an all nighter?Can't wait to see her all finished up-Hammertime

[gstoneberg]

Thanks, I should-a sent you this stave, I think it was quite a bit easier than what you just finished up.  No, I'm too old to do all-nighters anymore.  Plus, I want to get some snakeskin over that sinew before I put a handle wrap on it.  I'd sure like to finish it, but it'll take awhile yet to wrap it up.

George

[criveraville]

George,

You are almost there. The sinew job looks good. That bow sure is bending. Looking forward to full draw pics..

No prob.. Thank you for doing that

Cipriano

[Del the cat]

Just caught up with this thread.
Looks like it's a nice tricky job, after all we shun the easy stuff don't we ?
Del

[Justin Snyder]

Very fun watching this George. The sinew looks great, almost looks like one large piece.

[coaster500]

Don't know how I missed this one George?

 I've got a short stave marked for something like this. I have the sinew processed just waiting for the stave to dry a bit more....

Your on the home stretch now, looking great!!!

[gstoneberg]

Thanks guys, it means a lot.  I'm enjoying these short bows a lot; glad Ken, Rich and others motivated me to try them.  Still need work on tillering so I don't induce set.  Gonna try a couple different woods and longer bows next before I go for a short osage again.  I made a bow the local food bank auctioned off early this year.  I want to have another one ready this spring for them.   When I do get back to the yellow wood, I have a 50 year old corner post section I'm gonna split a stave off from.  Guess I should finish this one before I begin designing the next few.

George

[ken75]

George , i love that bend . you do well with your short osage .

[gstoneberg]

Thanks Ken.  I glued on some mesquite overlays, thinned the tips a bit, and recut the string grooves.  Needs sanding, but here's what one of the tips looks like.



Here's the other side, showing the split that runs in from the limb tip  You can see it through the sinew in the picture above.  It opened up when I was working it so I superglued and clamped it.



The bow also has a knot hole that pulled out when I hogged some wood off the belly.  I left it untouched.  It is right in the hardest working part of the limb and the limb bends right through it.  The limb is 1" wide at that point, the widest point in the bow.  On the back, that knot looked like any other pin knot.  On the belly it's pretty nasty looking.



The other working limb is narrower, 7/8", about the size of my index finger.



The handle is 3/4".  This is by far the lightest bow I've ever made.  Right now it weighs in at 11oz on the dot.  It'll put on some weight with the finish, handle wrap and backing.  Might put a couple arrows through it tomorrow after work, shooting off my hand.

George