Waddya think? Elm holmie

[campx]

This is my thrird bow, after making a horrible first bow out of maple, and a pretty sweet kids bow out of elm.
Been fiddlin around with this bow a bit.  Last week it had a rough, 2" X 2" handle, and was pulling around 64# at 28".
I decided on an angled grip, with the thought being it would make the string closer to 'center-shot'; the string is maybe 1/2" of where the arrow will rest.
I heat-treated the limbs.  Now, I don't have an hour and a half in my life to heat-treat a limb using a heat gun.  I seriously don't.  So, I stumbled upon a method that worked out good on the kids bow I made last year.  I use "Sno-Seal" brand boot treating stuff (I think its beeswax and paraffin) ,coating the belly  good, and hit it with a propane torch on low flame.  Keep applying Sno-Seal, and the wood seems to drink it in, and the flame won't scorch the wood.  Heat really soaks in good. Takes about 10-15 minutes to do, which I can live with.
Problem is, after I heat-treated, it picked up 6-7 pounds of pull........looking at around 73# at 28".   I think I'm gonna say to heck with it, and leave it that way.......and make another bow that comes in at 55# or so, because I am a newbie at this and need the practice.
Might make an arrow rest out of rawhide, from a deer I shot and skinned last year.

holmie 024 by CampX, on Flickr

Nocks are from century-old acacia from an old homestead near my place.

holmie 028 by CampX, on Flickr


holmie 023 by CampX, on Flickr


holmie 012 by CampX, on Flickr

And this is what I'm gonna do to check tiller from now on, when I think I am done.  I play around with Photoshop, so I used the arrow as the horizontal plane, and flipped the bottom half of the photo onto the top half, superimposing the limbs, with the fades being the "anchor" points.

holmie 012flip by CampX, on Flickr

[huisme]

It looks to me like you could get a few more fps out of that beauty if you reduce the levers a bit more. It doesn't take a whole lot of extra wood to make that much of the tips stiff.

[IdahoMatt]

It looks to me like you could get a few more fps out of that beauty if you reduce the levers a bit more. It doesn't take a whole lot of extra wood to make that much of the tips stiff.

+1

[half eye]

Looks very nice to the old guy. I like the bend geometry on your workin limbs. But hey what do I know, killed one this year with stone, dressed and skinned with stone, and butchered with stone.....so now the nephew calls me a barbarian....I like it.
rich

[campx]

Ya, it probably couldn't hurt to shave a bit off of the levers,and it ain't gonna wreck the tiller.  (Firing up the belt sander as I type this)' just kidding!
Now, I just need some arrows for this beast.  Thats next on my to-do list; gonna try and make an arrow jig with a router, for spinning shafts........

[PatM]

Looks very nice to the old guy. I like the bend geometry on your workin limbs. But hey what do I know, killed one this year with stone, dressed and skinned with stone, and butchered with stone.....so now the nephew calls me a barbarian....I like it.
rich

Interesting non -sequitur.
 You're not that old, people do know that you know what you're doing and......toot toot.

[Zion]

looks really rustic, cool! i agree with the tip reduction.

[Josh B]

Cool!  Josh

[Jodocus]

Cool bow and there's something about the pics, too 

[paoliguy]

I'm interested in your heat treat technique. How do you gauge when it's sufficiently heated? Color, temperature gun? I have never tried heat treating but am interested in how the process works.

[campx]

I understand that 350 deg F is what you are aiming at when heat treating....I didnt use a thermometer or  laser heat gun to check it, but my 'seat of the pants' guesstimation would say that it was that hot.  SWAG.......scientific wild ass guess, lol.  Seems to work though......

[paoliguy]

Well that's how I do most things too! I'm going to give it a try, thanks for the idea.

[campx]

An after-thought on the heat-treating..........when I was out hunting a couple days ago, I pulled half a Ziploc bags worth of pitch balls off of some fir trees and brought it home.  I threw the pitch in with some boiled linseed oil in a metal container, and heated it with a torch until the pitch dissolved into the oil.  Just started a little kids bow, and I am using this mixture, seems to sink in more.....smells nice too!  The other thing is I used the torch to quickly get the heat up in the limbs, then switched to the electric heat gun to get the final heat in.