Its been a while since I have posted a bow, but I decided this one was a candidate because its my first T/D that’s properly finished (im a starter, not a finisher;-), Its also my first “soft” backed bow.
As the headline implies its sea snake (black and white) backed laburnum. It pulls about 45# at 28” and is 64” ntn. It started out as a spliced billets stave, but I decided to make it a TD.
I removed the sap wood (except on the back of the handle) and made the second outer layer hearth wood the back. There is clearly a difference in wood properties in sap and hearth wood…the sap wood is much more tough/elastic (im lacking words here, but it seems like its has much better tension properties than the hearth wood). So my next laburnum will be with sap wood back. My reason for removing it was vanity….the hearth wood looks good and I hate explaining people that its not a yew bow (not good reasons at all).
The billets had lots of character and was a real challenge to tiller. There is some stiff spots I know, but there was no way around that….fortunately laburnum has awesome compression properties. Laburnum is defiantly up there among the “best” bow woods.
The handle is my first attempt at a Shrunk style leather handle. It’s a bit larger than I prefer, but the TD fittings does that.
Unbraced:
Braced:
Full draw:
Back:
Belly:
Handle:
The knife is just there to show the sap/hearth wood transition;-)
Thanks for watching
