Vine maple trade bow

[Jodocus]

Sweet bow, elegant lines, that one looks swift.

[simson]

Great bow, great work, great pics.
Your work is always a pleasure to look at.

[Jmilbrandt]

Absolutely stunning! I like how you did the tips.

[vinemaplebows]

Another beauty!

[Gordon]

Thank you all. I very much appreciate all your really nice comments.

[GregB]

Great looking bow, as expected I might add...never seen a bow posted by Gordon that didn't look like a piece of art.

[autologus]

Great looking bow, as expected I might add...never seen a bow posted by Gordon that didn't look like a piece of art.

What do you mean "look like a piece of art", they are pieces of art.

Grady

[jorge10980]

WHAT,you found a piece of vm that is clean and 68''..SOME PEOPLE..LOL

Actually John, I spliced two billets together. I don't think I have ever seen a clean VM stave that long 

What technique did you use to splice them together?

[Gordon]

Jorge, I used a Z-splice to splice the billets together.

[jorge10980]

That is a beautiful vine maple bow especially because you were able to work around the bumps. :DI am thinking of making a vine maple bow since I live in the Portland area in Oregon and there is a lot of vine maple here. Should I use the tension side for the back(side of stave that faces upwards).

[rockrush69]

How do you get into this tradebow thing . I dont make bows thT nice but would love to maybe trade two of mine for one of those he he ..... but how does it work.  Is it a drawing or what ? Do you have to sign up somewhere or something

[Weylin]

Once a year we have a bow trade. It's something you sign up for. We just finished ours a month or so ago for this year. You need to be able to build a safe and reliable bow and have enough of a history/presence on the forum here so that we have some assurance that you're not a flake as we have had some problems in the past with people signing up, receiving a bow and then disappearing before they send one out to their recipient. There will be announcements when the next one gets under way.

[rockrush69]

Okay cool . Thnks . I take honer i. Archery and would never steal a bow.  Which is exactly what that would be . Also my bows shoot great and do t usually break . I sell alot of them and test shoot them at least 100 times before the sale . So . I dont have it on my shoulders . But i understand . And hopefully by next year i will be trustworthy . I have only been on here for about a month and hVe only made about six bows ( in The time i have been on here . Total bows ive made is around sixty. Give or take ten ) so i realize i have not earned my stripes yet .  

[Gordon]

Should I use the tension side for the back(side of stave that faces upwards).

Yes, I use the tension side of a log when making a vine maple bow.

[Dan K]

Gordon,
Nice bow.  I've heard you can make a bow out of both the tension and compression side of a VM log.  With the compression side you just back it.  Is this correct?

I have several Vm's at different stages.  All are tension side.  This is incredible wood!!!  They all cam from logs and I hate to throw out the compression sides if they can make a bow.  What's your opinion on this?