After 4 or 5 failures, I’ve finally got one bow that I’m fairly confident in, and one I’m only sort of afraid is going to explode in my hand and hurt me.
First is a black walnut board bow, 68” ttt, about 35# @ 28”, brown paper bag backed pyramid bow, cocobolo handle made from a small piece of scrap I had laying around, all finished with a 50-50 mix of beeswax and coconut oil (didn’t have anything better laying around). Later, I decided to experiment and put a cable backing on made from B-55, cinched up and lashed down with a piece of two tone B-55 twist. It definitely worked to increase draw weight, bumped it up about 3-5 pounds (10-13% increase). I didn’t want to go any higher since there’s already the paper backing on it. No chrysaling yet so we’ll see how it does in the long term.
The second is a cherry takedown made with the metal sleeves you can buy online. I collected a large log from work that I was told was wild cherry. I confirmed based on the bark and the nice reddish color to the wood. Split it into staves, removed the bark and sealed the ends, stuck in the back room to dry for a couple months. They definitely dried to quickly and checked down through the thin sapwood. I managed to split all the checking off and chased rings down in the heartwood. Got about halfway through tillering, and when I drew it to 40# (goal was 45), crack. A crack formed on the corner of the side and back....right where it cracked on the last cherry bow I tried to make, and right around the same draw weight come to think of it. With the bow stung, I filled under it with super glue, unstrung it and pushed the whole bow into a very slight reflex to push the crack down together. Then I wrapped it all very tightly with some more B-55 and covered the whole thing in super glue. Let it all dry and it’s holding up to 28” draw, somewhere around 35-40#. I know it’s a ticking time bomb but I’m just hoping that if it gives me a scar, it at least looks really cool
