Well... I typed a huge thing about all I'd done. Then it got lost somehow. Forgive me if this is a bit shorter
Over on PP Rob ventured to see if anyone was working outside the box and building bows that were new, different, or broke the rules. Between that and the recent string of flatbow failures I've had, I decided to finally go about building anothre Penobscot. Not new, different, or even outside the box, but unusual enough I'd say.
I started this project with three goals or questions:
1. Can I build a hunting weight bow with good performance from what would otherwise be scrap wood?
2. Will it be easier to build two D bows, or a mantra flatbow?
3. How close or far off are my thoughts on Penobscots?
To address the first inquiry I started with scraps. The back bow is from billets that were too short for splicing, too narrow for take downs, and too reflexed for arrows. At two or three years old though, the wood was sound and the bark came off easily. I had enough for four or five small back bows this way. The main bow is from a stave that was too thin and propellered to be used for a regular flatbow. Though clean, it has twist and splinters. Perfect for this experiment.
I roughed the little bow out, 35" long, 1" wide, and 1/2" thick at the center tapering to 1/4" tips. It started out heavy enough but the uneven bend of the limbs resulted in an uneven tiller and I wound up lightenning it a bit too much. At this point I grabbed and roughed out its sister stave as a back up back bow.The back up bow is much cleaner and 5/8" to 3/8" at the tips.
I steamed the back bow into about 3" of reflex and put it in the hot box. I'm hoping it will boost the weight of the main bow from about 30# to 65-70#. At the same time, I'm hoping the bow will be heavy enough and have enough dry fire speed so that upon release, the back bow won't get in the way of the main bow's limbs. At the same time, I'm hoping it's heavy enough that if it encounters resistence from the main bow's limbs, it won't be stopped but actually helps pull them through- if only a little. If this one doesn't work, hopefully my back up bow (sinewed if necessary) will work.
The main bow is 68" long, 1 1/4" or so wide, and a real splinter of a stave. This stave is only a few months old, but rather green. I roughed it out somewhat and let it dry, at which point it stiffened considerably. I reduced it down to 5/8" thick at the center tapering to 3/8" tips and set about steaming it. The shape I'm going with is the same one I use for my hybrids. Now, I have no idea if this will help any with the Penobscot performance, but I want to try a Creek style bow with alot of D/R in a D bow, a D/R/D bow if you will. I have another stave ready, but needed to test it out. This bow got volunteered. The bow is bending in a perfect arc, feeling around 40-50# (it threw me off, as I normaly hope for 70# or more at this point
). At this point if shortened and sinewed it would have made a great little hunting bow without alot of work. But it has better things to do.
Into the hot box they go. I'll let them bake a few days, or at least until it's time to use the hot box to glue up a glassy. The main bow could probably go for alot of drying, but I'm also interested in seeing how long this will take. Once they come out of the hot box I'll set up a jig to temper the bows over the hot plate while still clamped to the forms. I'll be tempering before tillering, which hopefully doesn't give me too many headaches. Lately I haven't been tempering until after the bow is tillered out. We'll see how it goes I guess.
