My eighth bow, and my first time working with Hop Hornbeam. I had a lot of big ideas (static and/or flipped tips, fully backed, etc.) for this stave but ended up keeping in relatively simple, mostly because of novice errors and over cautiousness on my part. The bow is 52" nock-to-nock (I used pin nocks for the first time) and pulls 40# at 25". Because the bow is somewhat short, and because I did not think I would get it to my full 25" draw, I rawhide backed 12" of each limb--plus, I had some unused rawhide scraps from a previous build. I stained the bow with leather dye, wrapped the handle with deer-skin lace, and wrapped various materials to cap off the where the rawhide starts and ends. It shoots snappy and with consistent accuracy.
Note: The bottom limb had a bit of a twist to work out--more twist than I have ever had to deal with before. I took a plastic bucket with a rope tied to the bucket's handle on one end and a pair of pliers--tied at their handle--to the other end. After attaching the pliers to the stave's twisted limb, I applied dry heat and put weight (clamps, one at a time) into the bucket, thereby untwisting--as much as I could--the twist. Not an original idea on my part, but I read about the technique somewhere. The bottom limb is still a bit wonky, but I did my best with it. Also, my tillering work did not turn out as well as my last bow. I used a tillering gizmo, but when I hit 40#--and the limbs looked pretty darn close--I backed off. I have built all bendy handle bows, minus one Osage bow with a handle/riser, so far; I think that threw me off a bit too.
In any case, it is finished. And, as a side note, I think I am going to offer it to the nosy neighbor boy--with his mom's permission and assuming he is interested--that thought he secretly watched me--almost every day--build the bow as he sat behind the backyard gate in the alley behind my house. Another neighbor told me that he recently lost his dad, so hopefully it will cheer him up, even if it is only briefly.
Thanks for looking.
