2018 Bow Trade-Completed

[hoosierf]

I shoot 29” arrows three under and draw them to about 27.75”.

[hoosierf]

Progress

[JWMALONE]

Sweet, can you get two out of that?

[hoosierf]

Back

[hoosierf]

John, i think i could but i want to keep this one nice and wide to give me the best chance of success and i have about eight staves from the tree.

[hoosierf]

It’s 3” wide and 66” long. It’s now sealed with Bullseye and stuffed in a duct in the basement. I’ll start weighing it this weekend. If it’s lost a decent amount of weight I’ll work it down some more seal it up and hopefully have a workable stave in 10 days or so.

It didn’t check overnight at all and lost a few ounces so I’m feeling pretty good about it. If it checks i’ve got seasoned HHB, elm, Osage, and buckthorn ready to go.

[JWMALONE]

Awsome, I understand your thinking, one fat stave versus two skinny pieces of fire wood.

[Swampman]

Hoosierf, I think you made a good call to only try to get one bow from that stave.  I had a paper birch stave almost identical to that stave and I tried to split it in half to get two bows from it.  It split out on me and I ended up with 1 stave and 1 piece of firewood. 

That stave did yield me 1 nice bow though.  I ended up with a 46 pound bow at 27 inches.  The bow is just shy of 68 inches tip to tip and is just shy of 2 inches wide most of the length.  I believe river birch is a little better bow wood so you should be able to get a nice bow from your stave.  I am excited to watch the progress.

[penderbender]

Here is a couple of yew Elbs I roughed out. One is 75", one 72". Gonna go mid fiftys on the shorter one an aiming for 70 pounds with the longer one. Both are slightly deflexed. I probably won't touch that but we will see. Cheers- Brendan

[JWMALONE]

I've always wanted a yew ELB about that size and weight, 72 inches #55. Not that I matters but I think yew would look really nice with a natural finish.

[Swampman]

Penderbender, those staves look great. Looking forward to seeing them progress.

[M2A]

Wow Yew, nice!

I only ever played around with a small piece from an over grown landscape shrub. All I can remember is thinking to myself how nice of a wood it was. Unlike anything else I have worked on. And What I had was not even what most would consider good yew.

[JWMALONE]

Hopefully I can start tillering today. Been a little busy, took me a while to get that riser the way I wanted it. I actually took it off and re glued it, wont go into details how I got it back off. But I had to refit it, which is kinda nerve racking when its cut to size already. Anyone tells ya gotta have a band saw and edge sanders or profile sanders to fit a cruved riser perfectly has never seen a piece of furniture made before the invention of electricity.

[Swampman]

Here are a couple pictures of the black locusts stave I have been working on. I have it to low brace. I need to do a little evening out and then I will be using the heat gun on it. 

[JWMALONE]

Looking good Swampman, will that be a reserve bow?