Starting in the late 1930's, Nels Grumley a bowyer for Bear Archery produced a static recurve. One of them was the "Deerslayer" model with long, static tips. About a year ago, I sawed up some osage into slats. A bow style that's always been on my bucket list to attempt, was this Deerslayer bow.
About a year ago, I sawed up some osage that I harvested the year prior into slats. A good friend wanted to build one in my shop which began the motivation for myself to build one. For the hickory backing, I cut one out of an exceptionally straight-grained lumber store board. First, I built a hard bending jig for the static tips. Then, I built a reflexed gluing form that hopefully would yield a straight standing bow, by the time it was all done. Life got in the way for my buddy so I decided to move forward with my own. I used every c-clamp I owned (about 50) gluing the pre-bent backing to the pre-bent osage slat. It wasn't easy figuring out the inside radius bend of the osage to the outside radius bend of the hickory then the distance between the statics, in getting it all to fit. Nevertheless, I glued it up and removed it from the form after a couple of days and set it aside. Well life got in the way for me, last year and there it sat.
A few weekends ago, I decided to do something for myself. I reached for the glue-up and began the floor tillering process. From there, I carved out the tips as it became time for a long string. While working on the long string, I thought of trapping the back as I recall seeing them that way. The tips were very challenging. I didn't have an original Grumley to look at, so I surfed the internet which provided different profiles of the bow and tip sections. There were no measurements to be found so, I had to rely also on my guts and memory of those I've seen to tell me when they were "right". Finally, It came time to put it on the wall at brace height. I sure was nervous reducing the weight, identifying the stiff spots and reaching 28-inches. I thought for certain that it was going to blow up. Ah, but it held together and I reached my target weight.
My father-in-law gave me some piano keys from an antique piano that he tore apart, hoping that I may be able to use the ivory some day. Some Grumley's had tip overlays, so I thought of the ivory. Ivory can be quite brittle when thin. I destroyed 6 keys to end up with 2 overlays. I also fashioned an arrow plate from another key which also cost me a few extra piano keys. For the grip, I recalled some of the older bows I've held, having a glued on leather wrap without stitching. So that's what I did although, I wish that I'd had some in burgundy or red.
Final stats: 52# at 28". The overall length is 66-inches; 64-inches tip-to 1/2 inch tip. It shoots a hard, seemingly fast arrow right where I'm looking. I'm really liking this bow. Enough said; maybe way too much. Here's some pics.
More here:
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,44563.0.html
