My dad turned 65 this year. He was the one who got me into hunting. I started with a BB gun and progressed from there. He purchased for me a fiberglass youth bow which always hung with me. Fast forward about 20 years. Dad and I both pursued degrees in biology at roughly the same time and got similar jobs working with the public on ecology education in different areas of the U.S. Once I had my career I was introduced to self bow construction at a workshop and was bitten by the bow making bug. 13 years later I am still hacking on wood.
One day I was discussing my latest bow with dad and he made an offhand comment about my great grandfather and how proud he would be of me. I asked why. He used to make bows. Now that is about all he knew, but that fascinated me to know I was carrying on a family tradition.
Several months ago dad made a comment about bow hunting for the first time. I dont know if he was serious or not, but I decided to make a bow to honor him.
So I took a hickory strip and an old walnut board I had lying around. I glued them up and got to work. This was my first ever glue up. All my other bows are self bows. My son helped with the glue up and wanted to use a slab of cedar for part of the handle. Not my choice, but hey, the boy was excited about helping so I went with it. We gave the bow a minor bit of reflex. I took a couple of walnut blocks and glued them on the tips to make some minor static recurves.
Walnut works really well and it was a joy to craft. When the bow was done I decided it needed some personal touches. I used permanent ink to draw hickory and walnut leaves and fruit on the back. When done, I coated the bow with seven coats of tru oil, with steel wooling in between each coat. I name all of my bows and this one was deemed C.J.. That is short for Carya /Juglans. Dad being a biologist will recognize right away these are the genera for hickory and walnut respectively. Yeah, I know it has cedar too. Work with me here folks.
The bow is 72 inches nock to nock, 2 wide at the flare outs. It pulls 45# at 28. It is a peppy bow that spits out arrows. This bow took little set. It had a 1 reflex to it and after full tillering it was flat. Fun to shoot - with little fatigue.
I have no idea if dad will ever hunt with it, but for once in my bow making career that was not the point. I wanted him to know that I had enough love and respect for him to make a hand crafted bow for him; and to say I love you. Happy Birthday dad!
