So three is a bit of a story to this one.
Recently I taught a bow making workshop and I had a nice fella named Ron attend. I always have a collection of staves picked out ahead of time for the participants to choose from. After we had looked through the collection Ron asks if I have anything with a bit more bumps and character to it. So I took him out to my collection of crazy wood that I wasn't so sure what I was going to do with. He went through the whole pile and found this beauty. At first I was a bit nervous but definitely open to the challenge if he was.
He was aiming for a english longbow style about 45 pounds at a 28 inch draw. The bow ended up exactly on those numbers. We left it a little longer than I normally would on account of the bumps, I think the stave was about 74 inches long before the horns went on.
It took a lot of rasping to bring it down to size as this piece did not want to be touched with a draw knife or spoke shave.
The tips are yak horn and match the color of the boys skins really well. The arrow pass is burned in as the Greek symbol for serpent and the bow was named Basilisk.
There is still a few finishing touches to be done such as the leather handle wrap and a final sanding on the nocks. But i was very excited to show this one. It really is a one of a kind and i am very pleased with the way it all came together.
Pics to follow shortly