Hi Everyone. I'm back on R&R leave from Afghanistan, and thought I would post the bows my son and I made last year. All three are from the same section of a bitternut hickory I cut last spring. Bottom to top in the group pictures are my 15 yo son Lucas' bow, 68" n-n and 44# @ 28", 5" brace; next is my 12 yo son Tristan's bow, 68" n-n and 34# @ 28", 5.75" brace; and my own bow, 66" n-n and 45# @ 28", 5" brace. Lucas' bow is a pretty standard hunting flatbow of his own design, which he roughed out with a hatchet and did all the rasping and initial tillering himself. I took over for the finish tillering and heat treating; when we clamped the twist out green to dry it, the handle section sprung 4" off the board and now it has about 3" natural reflex when rested. Tristan's is my first attempt at Sudbury style limbs, and was a real bear to tiller; on top of that, I cut too deep in one spot with the hatchet and ended up with a 34# bow. Mine is an experiment, with a short handle section and limbs pyramid out to 2/3 then 1/2" wide to the tips. Both Tristans and mine had little natural reflex and were clamped into an r/d profile to dry. Tristan's has 1" reflex and mine has 0 when rested. After they have been strung for awhile and shot, Lucas' retains 2" reflex, Tristan's is at 0, and mine has 1/2" of follow. Oddly enough, they all had lots more reflex after heat treating, but pulled back to their original profiles after shooting in. I cut all of them for stringers, and I'm considering tapering the tips of Lucas' and mine on the back to front direction to lighten them up a bit.
