Here’s my latest ERC attempt. My last ERC selfbow exploded after about 30 arrows - an impressive double-limb blowout (I never even found the string). Since this stave was from the same tree, I decided I’d best back it. Anyway, I’ve been dying to try triggerfish skin as a backing material for a while now. I never heard of anybody using this, but somebody's probably done it before.
For you landlubbers, grey triggerfish is a diamond-shaped deep sea fish that’s a pretty common on the east coast. Instead of removable scales, it has an incredibly tough hide with a scaley pattern on it. So on a trip to NC, I snagged a few whole fish from a seafood store, and saved the skins. (The fish was delicious, by the way – tastes like red snapper.)
The thing is, these fish are only about 12” long from tip to tail, so I could only make strips 5-6” long, and overlap them along the back. This is probably breaking a cardinal rule of backing, but what the heck, it worked. And besides, I kinda like the reptilian look it gives it. This bow took the skins of 3 triggerfish. When this skin dries, it’s tough as steel, but it apparently has enough flexibility to bend without cracking or separating between layers.
The bow is pyramid-style, tapering from 1-7/8” to just under ½”. It’s 68” nock-to-nock. I made it a bit longer than most of my bows, on account of ERC’s tendency to take set (or break) at semi-heavy weights. It pulls around 65 lbs at 26”, which was my target. Sometimes I can flip the tips a bit on ERC, but this one wouldn’t cooperate, so I left it straight. It’s got about 1-¼” of set, which I’m good with.
ERC is pretty soft, so I added some deer hoof tip overlays, triggerfish skin strike plate, and a dyed jute wrap. It shoots off my hand just fine. I’m sure I could tweak the tiller a bit, but I like the way it shoots now, and I don’t want to lose any weight.
I’m new to backings, so I can’t compare it to much. All I know is, it ain’t broke yet after 100 arrows or so, and it shoots way zippy. I’d love to hear some advice from the backing experts out there.
...Tom
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