Please forgive me for my hiatus. I am back with a bow that is a little late to the show.
This bow was actually completed back in October, but I have only just got around to getting some good pictures. This one is special to me. Everything about this build pointed to failure. For starters, it is my first bow from a stave, first sinew backing and my shortest bow to date. I traded with Clint for this stave and the sinew over 2 years ago, and he sent me some extras that ended up on the bow as well. Not long after receiving the stave, I promptly attempted to saw it in half. Why? because I thought I could rough out the handle area with a table saw. Wow, I think now; how far I've come. after the near sawing in half, it somehow ended up across the room with a crack in the end...
So, it sat in the corner for 2 years until I finally decided I needed to make the attempt to salvage it. This was partly spurred by my father in law stating that he had little hope for it once I told him my intentions. This was after a maple board bow had broke on me so I was ready to redeem myself. The saw scar was filled with wood glue and wood dust and the spaces filled and filled and filled again with super glue. Given the damage, it was necessary to go with a stiff handle, not my original intention for this stave. I brought the raw stave to tiller a few inches short of my draw length, and with tons of help from you all, applied the sinew and let it dry for a month before continuing. Despite all odds, it has survived and is my favorite bow build to date.
Enough banter, here are the specs: bow is 59" nock to nock and pulls 56# at 27". It is made from a hickory stave backed with sinew, both from Osage Outlaw. The tips are buffalo horn, and the skins are water snake. I wrapped the handle area with leather lacing, and could have used a few wraps more. Arrow rest is a piece of shaped bone with some leather cut to fit as a strike. The belly was rubbed with earth pigments and lamp black in grease to add some color and the whole thing was finished with 5 coats of tru-oil and 2 coats of wipe-on poly. Thank you all for your help and all of the excellent material on this site that has helped me to create these marvelous tools. This post will be followed up with some more pictures, as it was too cold for the wife to stay out too long.
