James Parker (Robustus) bow blank.

[hatcha]

So earlier in the year I ordered a Parker bow blank from Mike Yancey at Pinehollow Longbows.  I got Mike to ship it to a friend of mine in Illinois and he in turn shipped it to me in Ireland.  I received it in April, watched the "how to finish" DVD (several times) and set about finishing it!!

Here are some progress photo's and some finished photo's - I need to take a decent horizontal picture of the unbraced, braced and full draw views. 

The bow is a 5 laminate construct - 'boo, osage, ipe, osage, 'boo with what I think is some form of walnut or similar riser.  I gave it 5,000 year old bog oak tip overlays from a block of the stuff a friend gave me, and finished it in about five coats of Danish oil.  It's 64" ntn and pulls about 56lbs at 29".  String is B55 but I also have a FastFlight string made for it.



























Kink in the lower limb - possibly due to the limb effectively "running off" towards the side of the sandwiched glue-up when it was cut to shape?  When looking at the tip the lam's inside appear at an angle, which I think might push the limb to one side when braced etc., if that makes sense?











I've done some extra knee-tillering of the top limb towards the tip, to try get it to open up more.  I'll get around to checking it and taking a pic over the next few days.







Advice and criticism welcome.

Thanks for looking,

Steve.

[JW_Halverson]

Could you arrange to send that over here to the Black Hills for live target testing on deer?  I suppose you can come along if you want. 

[Carson (CMB)]

Very cool.  I want 5,000 year old bog oak overlays!!  They look like ebony with oak grain, way cool!...nice bow too

[hatcha]

Thanks guys.

John, I think I made the tips too pointy and delicate to make this a hunting bow   The lower tip already has a little burr from when a friend rested it directly on the floor when I showed him last weekend

I s'pose I could still send it (in my carry-on luggage) to SD to put it through it's paces

[JW_Halverson]

Don't worry about the light tips, does the bow throw an arrow of decent weight at a decent speed?  Deer didn't evolve body armor when folks started putting wheels on bows.  They still have thin skin and delicate ribs!

[hatcha]

Don't worry about the light tips, does the bow throw an arrow of decent weight at a decent speed?  Deer didn't evolve body armor when folks started putting wheels on bows.  They still have thin skin and delicate ribs!

Hopefully I'll get to chrono it later this month.  It sure feels like it sends arrows out fast   they're more difficult to pull out of my target than the arrows from my 40 odd pound bow too 

[Joec123able]

Take that beautiful bow hunting the tips will be fine

[JW_Halverson]

Proper arrow placement and sharp broadheads would make your "40 odd" bow just as effective!

[Ifrit617]

Very Nice Steve. Looks like a quick shooter.

Jon

[Cameroo]

Missed this one when you first posted it Steve.  Saw a couple pics on facebook but didn't see it here.  Turned out really nice. 

I'm with Carson - hook a brother up with some of that bog oak.  That's gotta have some good mojo to it

[lesken2011]

Nice job on that one!!

[ohma2]

good lookin bow there.