Hello all. I'm Steve in Ireland.
Back in about September '09 I found a place about half an hour form me that does indoor shooting (BB guns and archery) and I visited a few times, more interested in the archery that the BB shooting. I would use his 45# bow and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Shortly after that, I began looking online for "archery related things" and happened upon a site of tutorials on how to make different bows by a guy in America. I must've spent weeks just staring at my screen, taking in as much info as I could about bow building and Flemish string making among other things. I decided I had to try to make a bow myself... it just seemed like the logical next step. Professionally manufactured bows are perfectly fine and serve a purpose but for me, I just wanted to do everything from the ground up.
Then, after reality set in and I thought "hey... you don't have the tools, the work-space or the ability to start from scratch...", I found a shop online that's about an hour from where I live so I spent more time drooling over what they had to offer... In the end, I opted for a pre-glued stave of ipe with a 'boo back for my first project. I bought this stave, along with some scrapers and Dean Torges' "...osage bow" book on October 31st.
In my quest to find someone with a tillering string that was closer to me than Harry's shop, I was introduced to an Englishman living not ten minutes from where I work. He's been involved in archery for over fifty years and is a fountain of knowledge and experience. He helped me to bring a bow out of the stave I bought (while all the time making fun of how someone my size wanted such light bow - I'm 6'2" and a little short of 250 pounds and was looking for a 45# bow. He's a cantankerous oul' git, is Jim hehehe). In the end, I scraped off too much or tillered past the ideal weight, compressing the belly too much but the outcome of the bow was about 28# @ 28 inches. I was more than a little disappointed, to say the least but it's a learning experience and far from over. Jim rang Ed Scott that night and we discussed the use of sinew on the back for extra poundage. As the back is bamboo and still has the nodes, I didn't really want to cover it up so we settled at the time for a small laminate over the grip area to add some stiffness. We glued on a thin block of makori (sp) and I shaped it down to a comfortable shape on the back. This added about 4# to the draw weight so now it's approximately 31 - 32# @ 28 inches.
As the stave was 72" in length and I never shortened it, I figure there's room to remove a little from each tip to add some more weight. I'm still not finished at that as I have yet to put a grip on the handle area. I collect swords also and I've a love of Japanese swords and their craftsmanship so I have some black rayskin which I'm going to glue/lace around the grip area, then will get some leather hilt-wrap from Fred Lohman in the states so I can put a "traditional" style wrap with a twist over the rayskin. Then I'll make my own string for it and it should be pretty much completed and on to project number two!!! An osage selfbow..... I can't wait!
My apologies for rambling on so much, any Mod's feel free to move this post if it doesn't belong in this section of the board... it started out as a "hello..." thread and ended up a "bow-build" thread... hehehe
I've also been trying my hand at some curing and tanning of deer skins - some to turn into leather, another to tan with the hair on - interesting work and a lot to learn as I go.
Anyway, that's me I s'pose... Thought I'd drop a line and say "hi" *waves* and now I'm gonna go off to trawl through the site for more nice things
Thanks,
Steve.
