Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Gordon on January 16, 2009, 02:40:13 pm
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Here is a bow that I made for a friend of mine. Brad had surgery on his shoulder and will be unable to pull the 60-70 lbs bows that he is accustomed to for some time. While visiting Brad at his cabin in the Oregon Cascades I spied a vine maple sapling on his property that looked like it would make a lightweight bow in the primitive bow style that he prefers. I showed Brad the tree and he quickly agreed to my plan.
The stave started with a little bit of reflex, but after I roughed out a bow and let it dry it took on a whooping 7 of reflex. But thats vine maple for you it grows naturally with a tremendous amount of tension on the wood and when that tension is released by splitting and drying, it will often curl up on you. A lot of that tension induced reflex will come out as the bow is tillered, but it makes things interesting at first. The bow settled in at 2 Ύ of reflex after tillering.
The bow is 59 ntn, pulls 42# @ 28 and bends through the handle slightly. The width is 1 Ό, 1 3/8 and ½ at the handle, mid-limb, and tips respectively. I used a combination of green and light brown leather dye for the stain. I left splotches of cambium on the back to create a sort of camo effect. There are no tip overlays or arrow rest because Brad wanted a bow that he could use for primitive shoots. It is finished with 9 coats of Tru-Oil and has a Strunk-style handle wrap.
(http://mysite.verizon.net/res0oeio/BradsVM/vinemaple_1.jpg)
(http://mysite.verizon.net/res0oeio/BradsVM/vinemaple_2.jpg)
(http://mysite.verizon.net/res0oeio/BradsVM/vinemaple_3.jpg)
(http://mysite.verizon.net/res0oeio/BradsVM/vinemaple_4.jpg)
(http://mysite.verizon.net/res0oeio/BradsVM/vinemaple_5.jpg)
(http://mysite.verizon.net/res0oeio/BradsVM/vinemaple_6.jpg)
(http://mysite.verizon.net/res0oeio/BradsVM/vinemaple_7.jpg)
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Beautiful Bow!
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Very nicely executed D bow Gordon, love the full draw on it.
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That bow turned out great!
Still maintained a fair amount of reflex.
Brad will be thrilled.
Bryan
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Gotta Love that Vine Maple.....some Spunky Damned Wood....I love it!! Very Nice Job Gordon........
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WOW!!! :o Simply Beautiful, Gordon. You're a great inspiration.
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Beautiful bow,I like it.Good Job. God Bless
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Nice bow Gordon,but then again, your bows are always beautiful
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Very good job!
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Beautiful bow! I was lucky enough to have inspected Rick Trojanowski's vine maple over the holidays. I was very supprised to see how much curl and figure that wood has that you can't really see in pictures. The grain also has a ton of iridescence that looks stunning under True Oil. Well done sir.
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the artist does it again...love it gordon...i hope your freind loves it as much as i would ;D.....thanks for sharing john
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VERY Cool bow Gordon. 8) You got that tillering thing down :)
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very very nice, keep the sapling bows coming. i've been studiing every one. i have some vinemaple and even a yew sapling i want bows out of.
chuck
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Thank you Bonsai.
Thank you Dana, I really like how a D-bow looks and shoots.
Thank you Bryan - I was surprised at the amount of reflex the bow held
Thank you El D. I cut my teeth on vine maple so I guess I'll always have a soft spot for it
Thank you for the kind words Okie.
Thank you Pete, I'm glad you like it.
Thank you James.
Thank you Denham.
Thank you October. Vine maple grain has a lot of "character". On the plus side it is beautiful when stained. On the minus side it's a bit*h to scrape.
Thank you John. I can't say there is all that much artistry in this bow - with saplings you pretty much get what you see. The trick is in the tillering.
Thank you Jesse
Thank you Chuck. Sapling bows are fun, but they can be tricky because of the high crown and character.
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Every one of your bows is impressive and humbling. This one is truly ELEGANT.
-Tom
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can I be your friend? >:D How awesome is that. How long have you been cutting your teeth on vine maple? great job on tiller you must be part beaver. :o
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Great job, as usual, Gordon. I love the color, the backset, the tiller. . .everything. Wow. I would love to try some vine maple sometime.
Dan
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The trick is in the tillering.
I'm listening.... the tiller is fantastic, and so is the photo of the tiller. now what is that trick?
I'll stare at it a little longer.
well done, with that natural reflex i bet i shoots fast, and you just squeaked into the hunting weights. Coming off a shoulder operation myself, I know the appreciation of a lighter bow.
Is the belly tempered?
Jamie
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Thank you for the kind words Tom.
Redwasp, I've been building vine maple bows for about 4 years now. It's not the easiest wood to work what with all the grain swirls, whoop-de-doos, and tension induced reflex. But I love this wood just the same. Thank you for the compliment.
Thank you Dan.
Jamie, I did not temper the belly on this bow. If I had it would likely still have 7" of reflex :o. The trick for tillering a sapling bow like this one is to make the belly follow the contour of the back in both length and width while evenly tapering the limb from the handle to the tips. And this no small thing when the crown wanders from one side of the limb to the other. Thank you for the compliments Jamie.
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Amazing Gordon :)
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what was the caliper of the tree or diameter and how many hours was put into that beautiful bow?
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I have heard people say "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.". They're wrong.
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Congrats Gordon, you've made another beauty :)
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Gordon,
I have no idea how you can turn a natural, unique piece of wood into a flawless piece of perfection. Where in the heck do you find the time to make so many gorgeous bows?
Outstanding work, as usual!
Joe
Ps. I'll be contacting you in late January for help on the handle.
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Thank you Philip.
Thank you Knap. It was a rather smallish tree whose diameter varied between 1 1/2" - 1 3/4". I couldn't really say how many hours I put into this bow because I don't keep track of that.
I will say, however, that it takes longer to make a low poundage bow. I would have saved a couple of hours if I could have settled for something in the 50ish pound range. But that was not the goal.
Thank you for the compliment John.
Thank you Andrew.
Thank you Joe. I found the time by being recently unemployed. But that will be changing soon. I'm looking forward to seeing your bow.
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Another cool bow, Gordon! Looks great! :)
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Thank you brownhillboy.
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Very nice bow Gordon,beautiful in all counts,by the way that ant for the Brad Smith that use to make a lot of bow several years ago,haven't heard from him in years,he was Gary Morris's drummer I think and was on several of his shows. Probably not ,Just wondered. :)
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by the way that ant for the Brad Smith that use to make a lot of bow several years ago,haven't heard from him in years,he was Gary Morris's drummer I think and was on several of his shows. Probably not ,Just wondered.
I'm not sure I understand the question Pappy.
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That right there is a sweet lookin' bow. Yesirree, sweet.
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another great bow! hope Brad recovers well, havent seen him in a while. maybe at the TAO banquet this weekend? I have a yew limb that did the heavy reflex after being split, will start on that soon. you have opened up a new avenue for bow building from less than perfect staves, keep up the good work ;D
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Just wondered if you built the bow for the brad smith that use to buld a lot of very nice bow his self,I know there are probably a lot of Brad Smith's out there just wondered if it was the same guy.
I seen the name on the limb.
Pappy
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Ah, I understand now Pappy. No, this bow was built for someone else.