Short maple flatbow made with lots of help from the PA boards

[Jodocus]

So here it is!

Its maple (acer platanoides) 56" (the tips came down a bit, giving me an inch of lenght), 52# when drawn 26", but I feel it stack on the last inch of draw, possibly telling me to stop... A bit over 2" at the fades.

I have decided that the very unequal limbs be tillered to egg shape. I'm not entirely happy with hte tiller, might work it over again. It shoots nicely, maybe the tips are a tad fat. It took little set, not even an inch, the lower limb had some deflex naturally.

I really screwed the paint: I painted it with standart watercolours, guessing I could well fix the colour with linseed oil painted over it. But it stayed messy untill I put on a fat coat that took weeks to dry. I'll not use watercolours again. 

The hanldle is as short as possible, so are the fades, I wanted this one to bend.

Thanks to everyone that advised me so well with the tiller and the bending, I would not have made it without you all!

[half eye]

Jodocus that bow is a real beauty. I dont see anything wrong with your tiller, to the contrary it looks very smooth bending......excellent little bow right there
rich

[coaster500]

I agree with Rich...  that's outside the box and looks very interesting to me. I like it !!

[boughnut]

sweet looking bow.  Looks like it should be a very smooth draw does not look like it should be stacking for quiet a bit of more draw although I dont work with maple much maybe it reached its limits and did not want to bend anymore I have not clue either way very nice like the paint to and the knocks as well.  Tiller looks great.

[Cloudfeather]

That thing's got some sexy curve to it, IMHO.

[JW_Halverson]

That's one lovely painted lady, losta killer curves in all the right places.  I've always been a fan of your work, and this is no exception.

[H Rhodes]

Sweet!  I like it alot.  Nothing wrong with that tiller to me.  I bet it flings an arrow just fine.

[SA]

i like it to ,nice bend and cool paint job .

[Jodocus]

Thanks alot to everyone! On the photo I can't see what bothered me with the tiller either. On the tree I always found the upper limb does not bend right in the outher half. Maybe I got a slightly different nocking point now, this seems to change the whole bend sometimes. Also, the feeling of stack might be my own fear of breaking the bow  , since I definatly think I should not bend it more.
I shot it for another two hours and over 100 arrows yesterday, and the lower limb took some more set while the upper did not. I guess I could heat treat it, but since the arrows don't touch my fingers yet , I'm not gonna ruin that nice white of the maple. It was even whiter before oiling.

[Del the cat]

Sh'e a beaut'
Del

[lesken2011]

Nice job!! Love those curves!!

[dwardo]

Nice bow and different i like it 
We call it Norgy maple or Norway maple over here (UK) and i have a lot of it growing nearby.
Would you say its a good bow wood? I imagined it to be like platanus which is rubbish in tension?
Will have to give it a go when i find a clean bit.

[Jodocus]

Well, we have tons of it too here in switzerland. I'm not experienced enough to tell if it's good. In german boards there are more people who have used it, and they argue every time it comes to norgy maple.

It seems that it is actually quite strong in tension and compression. It's a pleasure to work, never tears or splinters, cuts like butter. It's often straight and can grow fat rings with little earlywood. Easy to glue. Those are the good sides.
 
But also it easily becomes plastic (soft and rubbery) from bending with heat. That I can confirm, happened to me three times. It's said to vary wildly in quality, even sister staves. Some say it's weak in tension, some say it's weak in compression. I don't now. I certainly won't bend it for fun anymore like on this one.

Apart from that, this piece was really good to work with, I just did what I felt like and was never restricted by the woods properties. It was close to that "ideal piece" a beginner like me feels save with, where you can just draw an ideal straight bow in the back and cut it out and that's it.