Chittamwood bow ( holding together)

[Poggins]

My first try with chittamwood failed at about 19" , this one is holding together and I put over a dozen arrows through it this morning ,
It's not pretty , propeller twist in both limbs and one slightly deflexed makes it look odd on the tillering tree but it seems to shoot good .
The bow is 64" TTT , 62" NTN , 1 5/8" at the fades tapering to 3/8" at the tips and pulling 51# at 25" .
The propeller twist is enough that you could use it for a fan .
Having trouble with pics but I have one right now .
The wood is soft so I'm going to back it with snake skins and put ether antler or osage top overlays on .

[Pat B]

The outer 1/3 of the right limb looks stiff.

[steve b.]

Its looking pretty good from the side.  What Pat said, though.  I'm curious if it has some handshock?  You must have done something right if its shooting.

[Poggins]

Both limbs may be a little stiff on the outer 1/3 , but a little hard to tell from the pic , I need to get better pics and post them . The left limb in the pic has more twist than the right , the left limb twists away and the right twists towardse in the pic .
The handle wasn't finished when I was shooting it so it was hard to tell, I didn't feel much hand shock though , I'll shoot it again now that I have the handle shaped and see if it does .
I would try to straighten it but Ralph in Kansas tried both steam and boiling and the chittamwood bow he was working on and it broke , not sure what it would take to bend this wood but I'll try one of these days .

[SLIMBOB]

Just goes to show you.  Good to see you not only try, but get one nearly done with this wood. I would have bet against it based on what I've seen of it.  Full of moisture and soft as Cedar.  Looking forward to seeing it finished.

[Poggins]

There is a little vibration when I shoot it but not to bad , it took some set , now both limbs are deflexed about the same , I measured it before taking it out and shooting it and both limbs were at
1 3/4" when measured on its back on a flat surface . After shooting it and taking it to the woods for a little over an hour I measured again and they were at two inches , haven't measured it this evening to see where it settled back to .
The whole perpos of this bow was to get one to hold together and shoot , I will tweak on it a little but I don't want it to blow on me . It's at my draw length now and was shooting good yesterday but with a heavy coat on this morning my pattern opened up but only missed the bag once at twenty yards and got a little better after adjusting my stance to clear my arm better .

Has anyone worked with chittamwood before and if so any pointers on bending this wood .
I'll post more pics when I get some , and I'll try to get a good close up of the wood itself .

[4dog]

building one now...in the drying process...should check it and get back to it.