Here is my attempt on the trade so far.
I decided to make a take down for two reasons. First it is a lot easier to ship over the pond, the second is it looks cool and this bow is thought to be a hunting bow - so perhaps another good reason as the transport into the bush is also simple.
My thoughts about a bushbow are: not too long, dull finish with natural colors or camo, low stress design to allow leaving the bow braced the hunting session long – so no reflex or just a bit, a fast design – a static or a r/d, no fancy things – it should be a working horse.
Here we go:
This is my last suitable short stave, if it don't work I need to cut a lfull length stave.
Splitting into sister billets went without problems, the piece is nearly straight
Shortened the lower limb 2”
the billets with the prepared homemade sleeves. As you can see I have improved the sleeves by cutting an angle at the joint. This allows a longer way inside and gives a lot more of stability. I really don't like if the limbs are waggly when unbraced.
Also made new cauls for the steaming
here already steamed and laying together in the desired shape r/d
The inner ends
The back with guide lines for side taper
Side
Now for the funky part. As said I will try r/d design. So the limbs should reach the sleeves in an angle, not parallel to the back ring. Next challenge is to get the 45° joint matching,. You can see some lines a s guide for sawing and shaping. The red line is the chased back ring, near the handle I have left some additional rings to have some wood to play with. Or in other words the room in the sleeves must be filled to get a good fit and the back ring (here is the most stress) must have to lay deeper to avoid cutting off in front of the sleeve. The sawline of the two cut off shims is the direction the sleeves will have. Parallel to the black guide line in the middle. Hope you can follow my crude words …
Here you see the desired design, the limbs laying in position. If you look close you can see that the sleeve direction isn'tt parallel to the string. The plan is the let the upper limbcoming in the sleeve in a bit steeper angle than the bottom. This allows to hold the handle canted a bit forward on the upper end, or short: a more recurve grip. Background is the sleeves are always a bit boring, a non shaped geometric thing looking non natural.
working on the 45° cut
the lower limb, fitting the large sleeve
checking the joint
the upper ready, perfect fit
Next steps (no pics) were taper side, taper thickness, tiller, and into the fuming pipe - will try a faded coloring again ...
hope it works - we will see in about 10 days
