"Momīs Chopping Board" - An ELB Stylish Takedown Bow

[Lehtis]

Greetings from Finland!
As some of you may know, IFAAīs World Indoor Championship Competition will be shot in February 2023 in Kent, UK. This competition has been postponed couple of times due to corona pandemia but finally it seems to be true.

Last summer I realized I need a new bow, takedown, to be able to pack it in 40" compound bow case and take it to airplanes w/o extra charge. I have two older ones but new one is new one. I have some black bamboo for back and osage for belly but what to choose fore core? Ipe, cumaru, oak, yew? Then I remembered I had a rather heavy chopping board, perhaps teak, from my motherīs kitchen; I got that board last spring after my mother deceased. I was ca. 2 x 30 x 40 cm and I sliced it to 4 cm wide blocks. Then I V-jointed them to ca.  2 m long stave which ended up to two core laminates, one for this bow and the other for future projects.

I bandsawed the laminates to raw shape and sanded them. I used Smooth-On EA40 and bicycle inner tubes cut in half to convert the laminates to a bow stave with some reflex. Couple of days curing and then some more bandsawing and the stave got some lemonwood on handle area before cutting the stave at midpoint.

[Lehtis]

The next step was to fit the takedown sleeves and I surprised myself by keeping the stave straight; no bending sideways. Then plenty of rasping with farrierīs and Shinto rasps, raw tillering, more rasping etc. When the stave was bending to brace height with desired draw poundage, I shaped the nock ends and glued on cow horn tips.

[Lehtis]

After shaping the nocks I finalized the tillering, smoothed the surfaces and went to shoot some test arrows. Checking the bow after test shots I realized that there was some very tiny compression fractures at upper limb some 15 cm from the handle where there was some pin knots. Back to the sander and I removed some wood from that area and glued a slice of good osage to cover the knots. After curing of the epoxy I reshaped the limb and everything seems good now. Then black ink w permanent marker pen on bamboo, several layers of TruOil, leather wrap on handle and more shooting.

[Lehtis]

The bow ended up to 82 lbs @ 28".

Because of the core laminate I decided to nominate this bow as "Momīs Chopping Board"

[Lehtis]

Some more pics...

[Lehtis]

... and some more ...

P.S. The strike plate is a piece of water buffalo horn.

[Eric Krewson]

Beautiful wook!

[smoke]

Great work - love the finish on the Finnish bow!

[Pat B]

Very nice bow, Lethis.   

[George Tsoukalas]

Wonderful! Jawge

[superdav95]

Great save and a great finished bow.  Very nice

[Jim Davis]

That is my idea of a beautiful bow, in both appearance and function. I don't do ELBs, but that one looks perfect. I also appreciate your repair of the problem on the belly.

[Hamish]

That is a handsome looking bow, and a great story behind it.

Sorry to hear about the compression fractures, been there myself a few times for the same reason. I would suggest you "teak"  a little more time and compensate those pins leaving swellings around them on the belly. (I'm a weak man, I couldn't help it with the pun).

[bownarra]

Yes that is why I only use clean wood for lam bows. Even Osage will chrysal if too much is asked! I have just re-worked and lowered draw weight on a self osage elb that somebody else made. It was starting to break down at two spots with pin knots.
You also have a bit too much inner limb bend for an elb. The load on those inner limbs would have been lessened with a more elliptical tiller - you may have got away without the chrysals.
Nice finish work and a good use of your Mums wood.

[M2A]

Very classy looking bow! Good story line behind it. Good luck in competition!
Mike