59 inch Red Elm Penobscot Bow

[Will B]

Awesome bow!  Great bend. Looks like it would be very challenging to tiller but you obviously have that figured out. Thanks for posting

[BowEd]

Spot on full draw on your bow and nice work using the hemp cord and mini bow.In my experiences of making red elm bows I usually had to make the limbs close to 2" wide at least to mid limb at 64" to 66" length to get at least a 50# bow.Still a sreviceable bow but I don't really care for limbs that wide myself.That's just me.It does'nt take extreme designs very well IMO.I have a lot of it growing around me here.It will gain some poundage from heat treating.It is of such a light weight density type wood and lowest of any type elm I've made bows from,but good enough for some FG makers to use it as a core wood yet.
I've often thought of sinewing it sometime but never tried.

[airkah]

looks good congrats,,

Don't see that every day. Very special...thanks for posting.

Thank you! It means a lot to get such positive feedback from everyone. Its a little intimidating for me posting my bows on here because of how much I admire the work of all the members here.

I think you did an excellent job. Tiller looks great. Well done on all aspects.

I agree. Thats the best bend I've ever seen on a penobscot

Awesome bow!  Great bend. Looks like it would be very challenging to tiller but you obviously have that figured out. Thanks for posting

Very good looking work.  Yes, that f/d looks spot on.

Thank you all so much! It really isn't awful to tiller. I like to do the main bow out to full draw before even starting the mini bow. I do a really good thickness floor tiller on the mini bow and then attach the two together. I made a few scrapes on the main bow to tweak it once the two were attached, but for the most part it was finished before they came together. Adjusting the tension on the strings connecting the two bows can really change the tiller to get it where I want it. The downside is in having to check tiller and potentially make tension adjustments to those strings on the fly every time I string it. That part is awful. 

the hemp cord in the mini bow gives a nice look. thanks for posting again

Thank you! Initially I was not going to wrap the mini in the hemp cord, but I wasn't getting enough draw weight added from it so I debated starting over on another billet before coming up with the idea to wrap it out for function as much as the design element. It took me awhile to do, its something like 175 feet of cordage wrapped over and over, but as soon as it was done and I looked at it I knew it was the right choice. It added in some weight between the cord and the TBIII to keep it secure, but in my mind added weight on the mini doesn't have that big of an impact on the performance. I have 0 science to back that up, so I could be wrong there.

Spot on full draw on your bow and nice work using the hemp cord and mini bow.In my experiences of making red elm bows I usually had to make the limbs close to 2" wide at least to mid limb at 64" to 66" length to get at least a 50# bow.Still a sreviceable bow but I don't really care for limbs that wide myself.That's just me.It does'nt take extreme designs very well IMO.I have a lot of it growing around me here.It will gain some poundage from heat treating.It is of such a light weight density type wood and lowest of any type elm I've made bows from,but good enough for some FG makers to use it as a core wood yet.
I've often thought of sinewing it sometime but never tried.

Thanks. I totally agree that it is such a light density wood, but I enjoyed working with it. Then again I also always do like 35-45# and never go any higher. My opinion my be different if I did 

[bjrogg]

Great seeing your work again Airkah.

You know I can only remember one other bow you posted. I kinda liked that style better than this one. But I think this one is a winner to.  Very well done.

I like how you used the Flemish twist and overlays to adjust the two bows.

Bjrogg

[Pappy]

Beautiful bow and the tiller is spot on for sure. Nice job.
 Pappy

[airkah]

Great seeing your work again Airkah.

You know I can only remember one other bow you posted. I kinda liked that style better than this one. But I think this one is a winner to.  Very well done.

I like how you used the Flemish twist and overlays to adjust the two bows.

Bjrogg

Thanks BJ, I think that other one you are thinking of is the only other I've posted here. Maybe someday I'll post some pictures of an old bow or two.

Beautiful bow and the tiller is spot on for sure. Nice job.
 Pappy

Thank you! Getting the tiller correct was what I was most worried about.

[bjrogg]

If my memory serves me correctly. It was a BOM winner. Pretty sure it beat my Trilogy bow.

I hope you post more. I think you have a good tillering eye and nice work.

Bjrogg

PS it’s nice to see the ladies represented to.

[WhistlingBadger]

Thanks for sharing this, Airkah.  The penobscot design is really interesting.  Seems like a lot of extra work!  I wonder why they did it this way...was it to make up for inferior bow woods, or some other reason?

[airkah]

Thanks for sharing this, Airkah.  The penobscot design is really interesting.  Seems like a lot of extra work!  I wonder why they did it this way...was it to make up for inferior bow woods, or some other reason?

I don't think it was for some kind of compound mechanic to improve performance, my guess is the same as yours - that it was to improve durability. I've made a few that feel like an overdraw of an inch would end in disaster, but this bow doesn't really feel like its on the limit. I haven't drawn it past 27'', but it feels like it could keep going further without much complaint even though it is only 59'' long.

[bradsmith2010]

maybe it would draw further than a conventional bow,, how will we know,,

[airkah]

maybe it would draw further than a conventional bow,, how will we know,,

That might be an interesting project to try one day, see if a REALLY short one can still get like a full draw length.

[Santanasaur]

very cool bow Erica. Neat how the tiller changed with the front bow, that was some excellent foresight to keep the tips stiffer. When I made one of these it reminded me a lot of a cable backed  bow. I had a similar impression, seems to me  like the biggest advantage wasn’t performance or adjustability  but being able to use sub par wood that wouldn’t handle being a self bow.

[George Tsoukalas]

Excellent! Tiller looks great. Jawge