Elder HLD 40/28
I will do some HLD (hollow limb design) bows in the upcoming time. I found high crowned staves of dogwood, sumach, elder, euonymus plum and osage in my pile. Its more or less experimenting to find outmatching species and bow length for HLD, always aiming for a28” drawlength.
Here is the first, an elder sapling bow coming from a stave 60,5” long ( now 59” ntn) and only 1,5” in diameter (at handle). It had a large pith, the hole in the handle is the origin diameter. This diameter tapers out in the fades to a very pronounced groove, which then tapers into a triangular shape at about 4” before nock.
Elder is a very flexible wood and easy to work on, IMO it is a good bowwood and can definitely be used on HLD bows. This bow is very light by mass (only 332grams incl. string + hemp) and shoots great.
I made “finger-nail shaped” tip overlays for her, as elder is soft and I'm using thin strings. The handle is simple hemp wrapping. Elder wood is a bit boring, so the back is “dyed” with rubbed in earth pigments in the wet finish.
some dimensions:
length: 59"
brace: 5"
mass: 332 grams
w/d at handle: 24/33 mm
w/d:at fade: 40/19 mm (9 mm groove)
w/d midlimb: 39/16 mm (7 mm groove)
w/d at tip: 11/13 mm
stiff parts: 8" at handle
3" levers
Enjoy