This is my lucky month!! Jack's bow is almost done and yesterday I received a PM from southpaw4 asking if I would help him build a bow. LIFE IS GOOD!! Tonight Kevin stopped by and we got started. First we picked out a stave.
This is a sister to Jack's stave, though a little straighter and narrower. Kevin wants to shoot the bow with a thumb ring. This is going to result in a draw length of about 31". Since the stave is naturally deflexed, we're going to make a long recurve. The growth rings are extremely tight so we'll sinew back the bow, which will allow us to stress the inner limbs a little more. Kevin is planning 60lbs which should be no problem as the bow will be 66" n2n. We didn't make that much progress tonight as I got side tracked knapping and looking at knives. Kevin makes a beautiful knife! He left with the stave looking like this:
He took home a draw knife and has the homework assignment of decrowning the bow back and pounding sinew. Next time, when we get together we'll take the bow to floor tiller, take out some twist with heat, and recurve the tips.
Good times!!!
George
