Straightarrow wins March Backed BOM with his linen/turkey feather backed maple
Congratulations to Jon from Ellwood City, Pennsylvania for winning March BOM contest!!!
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,31761.0.htmllinen/turkey feather backed maple
Here's what Jon had to say about his bow: Just finished up this linen backed maple board bow for my father in law, Clark. This was my 15th bow and believe or not my first board bow. It finished out 53#@27"and is 65" long. I had some fretting issues on the lower limb so I did a rawhide patch then a decorative wrap. Seems to be holding out well. I wasn't sure how i wanted to finish the bow because I have never dealt with linen before. With spring gobbler season just around the corner I was inspired to give feather backing a try. I was fairly satisfied with my first attempt. It took about four hours to put well over two hundred feathers on....I have alot of patience and it tried every bit of it....lol. Anyhow the tips are ebony and cedar. The finish is tru-oil. Thank you guys for the compliments. I did use Elmers to glue them down. Not as easy as it may sound. I can offer a few pointers that may save you guys a headache and a few cuss words. I use the word "may" loosely. After some trial and error this is what i came up with. First lay down a size coat of elmers. I only worked on a quarter of the limb area at a time. It took a hour for each session. Next I watered some elmers down. Do this in a conatainer that is long enough to drag the feather thru. Make sure the feather is completely coated and give a little shake to get the heavy stuff off. Now lay the feather down on the bow. The feather has a natural cup so be sure to get the air bubble out. I kept a glass of water and a towel handy for my hands. It helps a bunch if your finger is wet when your trying to lay them down nice. Just a a word to the wise....the more you mess with it the worse it gets. Get them laying nice and leave them alone. I made the mistake of coming back later to try to fix a few areas and only made it worse....I ended up taking that layer off because I really messed it up. Now just continue laying them down like shingles on a roof. The next day I watered some elmers down and brushed a coat over the feathers. After the bow is completely backed a put a few coats of spray poly over the feathers then top with several coats of tru-oil. You definately want a good seal because the elmers is water reversable....Never had a problem....I use it on my snake skins too. I would recommend putting a dark coat of stain under the feathers to hide any separations. You'll see in the pictures that i touched up with a sharpie. At a arms length you don't even see where i touched up. Hope this helps....I'm no expert at this but I can say this method worked for me. Jon
Here are some of the comments from forum members:
Man did that turn out sweet!!! Can;t wait to see it in person!! HickoryBill
Wow. The pictures of this now came out nice and the tiller looks great Im lucky enough to have seen this bow close up and the feathers look awesome especially when the sunlight hits them another great now jon. cougarbob
That looks really cool. great job and sweet tiller. ErictheViking
That is awesome man, awesome!! PAHunter
That's sweet!! I love that feather idea. Can we get a close-up pic of the back. Tattoo Dave
Great looking bow, would be great to see some more detailed shots of the back, can barely see all your hard work. dwardo
Beautiful bow,very nice work. Pappy
