Gotta love that feeling of giving

[hedgeapple]

I just gave a bow to friend.  He wanted a light weight hunting bow to shoot at a turkey at 10 or 12 yards from his blind.  And he wanted it black so it would not be seen inside his blacked out blind.  And, it needed to be short enough for him to shoot it in the blind.  Simple enough, except he's 6'4 and draws a bow 29".  He's an experienced archer with a compound bow, but after seeing a few of my bows he wanted one.  A month ago, he said, "How cool would it be for me to take a turkey with a bow you made."  I thought it would be pretty cool, also.  One because he's a friend and has supplied me with turkey feathers for the last couple of years and even gave me a couple 3D targets.  And, SECOND, because he sits on the board of directors of Matthew Bows.

When I gave him the bow this afternoon, he was like a kid at Christmas.  You remember those smiles forever.  I made him a few arrows, turkey feathers on tomato stakes done in a Cherokee 2-fletch style.  The arrows excited him more because they were probably from turkey wings that he had given to me. 

He took the bow straight home and started shooting it.  He says a turkey within 10 yards will be down.

About the bow:
60" n2n
45# at 29"
osage  1 1/2" at fades.

Sorry, I should have taken pictures of the finished bow.  I will when I get a chance to do so with him holding it. 
But, this is a picture of the final tiller.

[driftingrz]

lookin forward to seeing finished pics. it looks good on the tree. I cant wait till im at a level where i can gift.. "working" bows to others haha..

do you find any noticable difference between the cherokee 2 fletch and 3 feathers?

[Bryce]

Wow what a great story!
I bet next he'll want to build one!
-B

[hedgeapple]

Drift,  I can miss as well with the 2-fletch as I can with the 3-fletch.    Honestly, at hunting distances under 15 yards I don't see a difference.  I've attempted about 60 3 fletch arrows and got 20 that I shot.  I find 3 fletch arrows much harder to build, but I'm still learn to make them.  Since most arrows are 3-fletched, I would have to think there's a reason for that, especially if you start shooting 25 to 40 yards and beyond.  But I'm not accurate enough at those distances to give an informed opinion.

I like the Cherokee 2 fletch because: for me they are easier to make, they lay flatter in my quivver or against the back of my bow if I'm just wanting to carry one extra arrow in my bow hand.  Oh, and they look cool.  At 10 yards they will do a 90 degree spin by the time they hit the target.

[Pappy]

Man beautiful bend, that's asking a lot from a short stick ,looks like you pulled it off in top notch fashion.
Pappy

[blackhawk]

Looks good Dave....waitin for the rest of those finished pics

[DQ]

Looks like a perfect bend.  Looks bright yellow to me though.  I'm interested in how you achieved a black finish.  (Rattle spray can?  )

[Hrothgar]

Thats prime tillering. Your friend should be proud of that one!

[Keenan]

Wow That is a very sweet tiller. 60" and 29" draw is definitely pushing the margin. Well done

[hedgeapple]

Thanks DQ and Hrothgar for you kind words.

DQ, I spent nearly 2 weeks applying 12 coats of ebony stain on that yeller stick.  The last coat was a heavy one.  When I attempted to sand out some drips, the yellow popped out.  I stripped it all off.  The added 2 coats of shellac  AND then I broke out the "rattle can".  After 2 light coats with it, the bow looked much better.  I put 3 coats of poly over that the buffed it out lightly to cut down on the clear.

What I learned and will use on a bow in the future is: when you apply ebony stain to yellow osage you get a greenish tint.  If I had been making the bow for me, I'd stopped at 3 coats.  The small grain in the wood looked black, the rest was a hunter greenish with some yellow showing through on the real slick spots.  It was very pretty.

[hedgeapple]

Pappy, Blackhawk and Keenan, as friends and sometime mentors, who's bowyer skills keep pushing me to do better; I especially appreciate your commits.  Thank you.

[gmc]

Thanks DQ and Hrothgar for you kind words.

DQ, I spent nearly 2 weeks applying 12 coats of ebony stain on that yeller stick.  The last coat was a heavy one.  When I attempted to sand out some drips, the yellow popped out.  I stripped it all off.  The added 2 coats of shellac  AND then I broke out the "rattle can".  After 2 light coats with it, the bow looked much better.  I put 3 coats of poly over that the buffed it out lightly to cut down on the clear.


What I learned and will use on a bow in the future is: when you apply ebony stain to yellow osage you get a greenish tint.  If I had been making the bow for me, I'd stopped at 3 coats.  The small grain in the wood looked black, the rest was a hunter greenish with some yellow showing through on the real slick spots.  It was very pretty.

The added 2 coats of shellac  AND then I broke out the "rattle can". ?? Good to see you got half of it right any way.

Nice bow, Dave. Hope he knows the value of good primitive bow.

gmc

[oscar3b]

That's a great bow.  I'm sure he'll enjoy it.  Especially if it's who I think it is.  I'm just surprised you could get him away from that wheelie bow of his. We'll have to get together again sometime and make some shavings now that I have a fee bows under my belt.  We might even be able to talk Matt into coming and working on one of those staves GMC gave him.

[osage outlaw]

You sure got a nice looking tiller on that thing.  I can't wait to see the finished pics.  I bet it was hard to cover up that nice gold color.  I hope your friend understands the amount of work it takes to make a bow like that.   Great job on it Dave!

[hedgeapple]

GMC! you're ALIVE!  Yeah, I should have started with shellac.  I though seriously about try the ebony stain over the shellac after I had stripped it down.  BUT, deer/turkey season starts this Saturday and I had to get this guy his bow.

Ben, I think you do know this guy.  He could be your boss.     I hadn't heard from you in awhile and I needed a hickory stave, sorry but I've started a bow from the one I had here.  I think we can talk GMC out of another one, though.  I'd love to have you guys out for a bow building night.