Worked with an ol boy once who said, "tall timber makes for good splitting!" Now I'm pretty sure he was implying something different as he leaned on his shovel and watched the foot traffic, but I can't get that sayin out of my head looking at this purty piece of Locust.
The stick came from Ol' Hippy at the classic and I tried everything I could think of to turn down the gift. Even out right told him, I don't like Black Locust as a bow wood. He wouldn't hear none of it and thrust this stick in my hands saying, "give it a try anyway..."
Well try I did and darned near gave up on it several times. Kept coming back (I'm a glutton for punishment) and eventually got it to floor tiller. I noticed the limbs weren't quite lined up and it was wantin to slip sideways, so I put a little heat to it and attempted to get em lined back up. Crazy thing gave me a scare when the wood started to seperate a little and I came real close to cutting it into firewood again!
After I calmed down, I filled it with good CA glue and let it dry overnight. Soon I was back after it and had er shooting in no time. Kept looking at that crack and expecting compression failure with every pull. Stupid thing never budged. I even wore safety glasses while shooting it in, cause I knew it was gonna end violently! Well, paint me red and call me a chigger, cause I was wrong!
Sanded the snot out of her and the crack is all but gone and still hasn't moved. Might have a 1/2" of string follow after resting and is extremely light and quick in the hand. For finish work I kept it simple, cause, well... Look at her! Wouldn't you?!? 68"ttt 55#@28" with snake wood overlays (thanks G)and a hand rubbed beeswax finish. Ever rubbed a wet finger around the rim of a fine crystal glass? Well, then you know the feeling.
God Bless!
