Ash Longbow

[Flyonline]

Finished off an ash longbow a few weeks ago. Was a bit of a trial as I've not used it before - after osage and the local hardwoods, it felt as soft as butter. Took a bit of heat treating to align everything and get rid of some of the natural string follow. Has taken a heap of set despite some heat treating, but next time I'll go wider and trap the back a little to reduce it some.

63" NTN, 57lb @28"

Desert Ash (fraxinus angustifolia/oxycarpa)











I initially thought the right limb in the braced/full draw pics would be the bottom as it's a hair stiffer, but it feels a little better in the hand as the top limb. Not much hand shock, so now I need to add an arrow pass and a handle wrap. Finished with beeswax, which made the toasty wood darken up nicely. It didn't take me long to get confident with it and would be happy shooting it out to hunting distances with a 550gr (~9gpp) arrow. Fast she ain't, but it is whisper quiet - with a leather side-plate I reckon a bees fart would be louder.

I was interested to see that it held the heat corrections when I tempered the belly, the couple of osage bows I've done have lost all the correction when re-heated. This stuff is everywhere as a road/garden tree, and I picked up a couple of good logs when the power line trimmers were going through so I'll keep my eye out for some more.


Steve

[bownarra]

Always good to try new wood.
To keep the set down you should make the tiller more elliptical with a little less bend in the handle.

[Flyonline]

Yes, this is a sub-optimal build - as a novice I wanted a bit more meat to work with so a few errant scrapes wouldn't make a hinge I couldn't get rid of. Next one I'll be looking at something a lot more wider and thinner and toastier.

[Lumberman]

That’s a D! Nice job

[George Tsoukalas]

Very nice. Jawge

[bentstick54]

Good looking bow.

[bradsmith2010]

congrats on your bow,, 

[Flyonline]

Thanks gents!

I heated and re-straightened the string follow out then toasted the belly a lot more which upped the poundage back to the 57ish again, and certainly upped arrow speed and reduced string follow (though still not great).

I'm a little surprised at how well I can shoot this thing out to hunting distances. If it holds up I may even give it a tote and see if I can get something with it.

[druid]

Little softer in the middle than it should be but without hinges or other mistakes. Good. 😌💪🏾

[MM2]

Oh, what a D!  I like it. Congrats and thank's for sharing.

Michael