A little over a year a go I cut some hawthorn. I got six staves out of them but when I debarked them I found they where all littered with bug holes! Only one of the staves looked like it could have a bow in it so I cut a rough bow shape out and stored it away from my other staves to dry.
Sometime this januari I felt like trying that thing so I roughed it out to floor tiller and found some more bug holes and even worse, I found that the big knot on one limb was completely hollow. So first thing I did was drill that out from the belly and fill it with two large plugs.
One limb was pretty clean but the limb with the large knot had some more bug damage mid limb and bend into a few inches of reflex right at the knot. Heated some of this reflex out but did not want to heat it too much at the plugged knot.
I kept the bow long for less stress but could not resist to flip the tips a bit just for looks. Upper limb still looks a bit weird but did not want to risk more bending.
Added laburnum tip overlays and arrow pass and stained the bow with my osage/ammonia/vinegar slurry. The leftover bits of cambium took al different tones from the stain, weird stuff but I like it;-)
Added a contrasting leather handle wrap from and old bag and called it done.
Specs:
Draw weight: 45@28
Length: 66 n.t.n.
Max width: 1.75 inch
Tipoverlays: Laburnum
Stain: osage/ammonia/vinegar
String: 8 strand fastflight
profiles
braced
details
knot
belly plugs
fd
