Hi folks!
First of my BL fence pole staves. Splitting the pole, it had some serious fungi damage to the core which I hollowed out immediately to see if there is a bow in it. Removing almost all of the sapwood I was left with a quite skinny roughed out bow. I could get rid of all the damaged wood only in the upper limb wood but I was to curios if it will hold together. Dried pretty fast and I worked on this during winter beside my arrow projects off and on inside the house (not much wood removal, sanding outside and my wife was ok with the mess).
I wanna tribute this bow to "HALF EYE" Richard Rousseau who was one of the greatest short bow builders. So much knowledge about native Indian bows has passed away with this, I believe, very nice person. Red many posts of him and feel honored to get a positive feedback once, on one of my earlier bow posts.
I tillered the bow by bending over my knee and tried to get the handle bend at last and just to feel it.
I really enjoyed the build also the hollow limb design didn’t bother me to much as one half was almost done by the fungi already. Interesting is the fungi wood of the lower limb destroyed the early growth ring into a crumbling pale sponge. The late growth ring turned to a dark brown with black strikes and comparing to the other limb, even harder wood!?!
Also the growth rings of the upper become thinner outwards so I got an island there. Where the island started it chrysalled lightly. Thats the first lesson I learned from teacher BL and I’m not so sure about the second. I continued tillering - the bow took very less set and the tiller looked good to so I wasn’t afraid to draw it further. When I draw it to 26“, the upper limb crysalled lightly right out of the fades about 13“. This caused a little bit more set, but it still holds about 1cm reflex. I started with 2,5cm. Dynamic set (the set which disappears after unstringing and resting) about 1cm.
As this limb should be the healthier one I’m not sure why.
Hope you guys have some clues about that.
My wife wants it and she has a 24“ draw max. So the bow should survive.
No corrections and no heat treatment have been done to this bow. It has a bit of S-shape and twist in it. The narrowed handle and tips I copied by bows made by Sioux and Cheyenne.
braceheight: 4 7/8“
ttt: 53"
35#@25"
Max w: 1 1/4“
Fades: 3“
Nocks w: 1/2“
Symmetric
Crosssection: tapered and hollowed
Mass: 248 gramm without handle wrap
Nocks: cow horn
Finish: two coats of resin beeswax than 2 coats tung oil
Handle:hard foam push ups at back and belly wraped with thin leather and secured with an linen shoe lace.
Arrow rest: dogwood
