I hardly ever post bows on here, but I've only been building a year and this was a challenge for me. It is the first bow I've worked down from an actual log and almost bailed on the whole project before tillering.
I would love to submit this for BOM, but I ended up backing it with fiberglass mesh when things started going "awry".
Here goes...
My Dad has a mess of American Hophornbeam (iron wood) behind the house and cut me a stave about 4" in diameter and 72" long. He sealed the ends as I instructed, but not quite quick enough as the wood cracked on the ends. I had to cut the stave down to 60" after letting it cure for several months. I probably should have let it go a bit longer, but...I got bored.
The log was really straight but the bark twisted as it climbed up the tree. The wood followed suit. It split like a corkscrew, leaving me with a twisted gull-wing looking piece of wood with several knot clusters and cracks. I ran into quite a bit of bad wood and had to lower away to get beneath it, or re-center the bow to get around it. I did most of the work with a draw knife (which I am new to using) and hit a nasty crack near the fade just as I had the bow floor-tillered. It peeled away a large chunk below the fade on the top limb and some off the bottom. The top limb also had a knot cluster on the middle third that I knew would be a problem. The bottom limb had a knot straight through near the fade as well. I figured this was a doomed endeavor.
I decided to try to save it and push myself with a few tricks I'd read here and elsewhere. I decided to back the bow, but didn't have anything other than fiberglass mesh and a spool of waxed, processed sinew. I didn't want to waste the sinew on a lost cause so I went with the mesh and figured I'd practice backing if anything else.
I backed the bow, but the aforementioned problems made for tough tillering. There was indeed too much wood off the bottom third and other issues as I continued. I decided to reinforce the wood below the fade on each limb with the mesh and then wrapped it with the sinew and TB3. I wrapped other problem areas with the sinew and TB3 and kept at it, thinking I'd make a 25-30# bow for my wife or daughter.
I tillered the bow to be a bit uneven length wise, giving the top limb a bit more length than I usually do and by the time I got the bow as tillered as my ability would allow...discovered I'd actually made a 45# bow at 30" of draw and 61" length. It took a 2" set but has been holding really well and actually flings a 40/45 wood arrow a whole lot quicker than I thought it would.
I can't submit it for BOW due to the patching and backing, but I thought I'd share it anyway. It's ugly, but has a cool vibe and shoots real well. I learned VOLUMES from building it. lol
She'll probably fail...then again she may not. It was fun regardless and I'm loving how it shoots.
