Thank you all for your comments I enjoyed reading your enthusiastic supportive words. As for as attaching the feathers: I hadn't seen a feather backed bow so I did some experiments. Originally I was going to use barred turkey wing feathers which would also be cool, those feathers seemed too thick and are hollow they seemed to tear off easily after glueing. Next I used the turkey back feathers these feathers are much thinner and glued well. The black silk backing was glued with titebond2 as were the feathers. I applied glue quite heavily with a Qtip to each feather the smaller feathers glue most easily the ones with a thicker center quill have a tendency to form an air bubble under it and may need pressing down as the glue is drying. The feathers were pretty much
saturated with glue on both sides. Later when dry I used shellac all over the back because it sticks
well to most anything incase some feathers were still exposed this was covered with 7 coats or so
of tru oil. The turkeys back is amazing with iridescence changing along the lines from blackish to
bronze and yellow etc. I tried to replicate this gradient on the bows back. Some strange good
effects have occured in the exposed silk areas with the silk taking on a bit of a greenish tint in
places some how mirroring the feathers. It all blended well no problems after shooting the bow.
Tom Heres a couple more photos
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