Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Del the cat on September 30, 2011, 03:42:52 pm
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I've just finished this. I was getting a bit jaded with heat treating and straightening everything, so this is just a lump of Yew, plain and simple, no messing with heat.
It has a huge twist so took some carefull tillering, it's 45# at 28", I've taken it back to 29". 64" ntn 169fps was the best figure, which is pretty good for a 40# with no reflex.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/Back.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/belly.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/FinalFD.jpg)
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/Grip.jpg)
OK, I did stick some Waterbuffalo horn on the ends ;D
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/nock-1.jpg)
Del
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Oh yeah, I decrowned it.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/decrown.jpg)
And it shoots pretty well :), This pic is somehow distorted as it's taken at a downward angle, makes the top limb look much looooonger than the lower one.
(http://i411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/Website%20stills/group.jpg)
Del
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Very nice bow. I love that you left it as is, Yew just wants to be a bow; especialy in your hands :) :)
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That is a sweet bow. I like the natural approach, Very well done
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Great googely-woogely! Del, that is the exact bow I am looking for! Drawing just 40 lbs and sending arrows at 169 fps?!?! That speaks volumes about your tillering expertise. Chronies are chronicly honest flaw detectors and it wouldn't give up speeds like this if the mass were off in the slightest! I have short osage flatbows with stiff handles, recurved tips, and sinew backings that don't touch those kinds of speed!
Those black buff tips set off the lovely creaminess of the sapwood and richness of the heartwood. Oh how I would love to take that bow out on the wide open prairies here and hunt pronghorn antelope. Or a springbok in Africa. Or even bunnies in the Aussie Outback!
Sadly, it would not last with our extremely dry summers and bitterly cold winters. I couldn't even accept it as a gift.
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Nice bow Del! Yew is such a nice looking wood.
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#$%@ Dell, thats a gorgeous bow! Gorgeous tiller. Gorgeous overlay. You can see the twist your talking about in the right limb on the tiller tree pic. I know that feeling just going with it, only thing I ever do anymore is steam in recurves. A little limb twist has never hurt in my opinion, but takes a good eye to tiller. (For me anyway it can be a little harder to tiller a twisty limb, as I can never decide if it looks good of bad from either side most of the time, sometimes I have one side looking good, but if I flip the bow around it will look hinged? :-[,... ::)). Those horn overlays are lookin niceee...
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Awesome! Very nice bow. I like the pure look of the wood, the natural twist and the little pin knots. The knocks are sweet too. Well done!
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Thanks guys.
It was 45# when I tested it on the chrony, but after that I shaped the grip a bit, did a fair bit of sanding and shot about 50 arrows so it's settled down a tad.
If I discard my highest and lowest chrono readings I get 166.65 average, which is fine (I couldn't resist putting in the max figure).
That speed is with a light field point (70grain) seein' as how we can't hunt in the UK, I expect it would slow down a fair bit with a hunting arrow.
I kept the tips nice and slim with an almost triangular cross section.
The whole build is blogged on my bowyers diary with more pics for anyone who wants to see. http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/09/yew-primitive-stave.html (http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/09/yew-primitive-stave.html)
Del
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Great work sir,great tillering eye,beautiful piece of wood ,just love the look of yew-Hammertime
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Del you can send that sweet little twisted up stick to me and I'll get her blooded for you, LOL
Nice bow, I too love the natural approach.
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Wow I could never make that work. I can't even make my simple "twister" work.
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Absolutely gorgeous Del, can't help but get excited when I see that sapwood/heartwood of yew. Just an awesome job on the tiller with that twist. love the tips as well.
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nice bow del ! i like the unchanged staves
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Not too many other woods out there as pretty as you...I mean yew...lol :laugh: nice bend to her.
How many grains did your arrow weigh that you shot through the chronograph? For all we know it could've been a 200 grain arrow,which wood mean its slower than an ole dog,or it could've been a 1000 grain arrow which wood mean its faster than a cat ;)
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Very nice I like it a lot. Really nice tips. Very pretty bow.
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Real pretty bow, Del. There's something beautiful about that yew wood. Sure makes a good looking bow. Not to mention the bowyer...
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@ Blackhawk.
The arrows are 5/16 cedar shafts, I havn't got a grain scale to weigh 'em.
A while back I went to the Post Office to mail a package, so I took 6 arrows to weigh on their scale ;D.
I can't remember what it was tho' ! I think it's somewhere on my blog but... who knows, that thing is getting a bit big now!
Sometime if I get a bit of spare cash I'll get one of those digital grain scales off the internet, they are pretty cheap, but then, so am I ;D
Del
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Beautiful bow. I would have gone all out to take out that twist. Guess I need to rethink that now.
George
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Hey,if you can afford a chrony then you should be able to afford a grain scale..lol :laugh:
BUT I am a cheap dutch conservative bastard my self and can relate. I think a lot of people here can relate to being cheap cus we all make our own gear ;) screw the mainstream archery marketing masses saying we need this and that. A Stick n string with a sharp point stick is all I need..lol :laugh:....seems im going off on a Del like type rant so ill stop there ;D
Again, sweet bow ;)
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is the back one ring??? is it ok to do that with yew sapwood???
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is the back one ring??? is it ok to do that with yew sapwood???
No it's not a continuous ring, and it's fine.
The back has been decrowned, but generally follows one ring down the centre.
Yew isn't as fussy as Osage and as long as the violations run along the bow, or at a shallow angle to the length of the bow it isn't a problem. I have them running across at an oblique angle or a V at some points.
I could have slavishly followed it down to one ring but then I'd have had thin areas of sapwood.
What I've done is fine, I've done similar on Yew longbows of a reasonable draw weight. See this thread, my post on page 2, there's a pic.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28088.15.html (http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28088.15.html)
Following a ring on Yew is the ideal, one has to be realistic, and sometimes you have to compromise to keep a decent balance of heartwood and sapwood.
Another reason for doing it like that is just to raise such questions as yours, I like the look of it too.
Have a look at my blog for more detail (link in one of my earlier posts on this thread)
Del
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Great bow!!! Never would guess it had any twist strung up. Your tiller is amazing....... Love it a la natural :)
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Very beautiful yew Bow, Mr. Cat. Like George, I'm also drawn to making staves straight with heat. I guess I need to think more out of the box to be able to achieve a beautiful, well tillered bow like this one you built. The yew is incredably beautiful to boot! 8)
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Very beautiful yew Bow, Mr. Cat. Like George, I'm also drawn to making staves straight with heat. I guess I need to think more out of the box to be able to achieve a beautiful, well tillered bow like this one you built. The yew is incredably beautiful to boot! 8)
Cheers, It's a particularly fine grained dark heartwood on that stave (cut Feb 2009 at a secret location deep into a Wood in Hampshire England... I could tell you more, but I'd have to kill you ;) ).
It's yielded 2 nice longbows as well as this bow, as they say up North you don't get o'wt for n'owt, so the price I paid for the nice dark wood was twist and bend.
It took a lot of work to get the first longbow straight and true and the second had a knot which was much more extensive that was obvious so I had to patch the back in the end.
This last bit wasn't long enough for a longbow so I thought I'd treat myself to a nice primitive.
Del
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awesome bow Del, and very good speed....
Dave
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Awesome bow! Jawge
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What a beauty! You've just pushed a recovering addict off the wagon. :laugh:
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Excellent stuff Del! I have some Yew that I am chomping at the bit to work but it needs to season some more :'(
Thanks for sharing!
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Very nice job,beautiful bow. :)
Pappy
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Very good bow Del!
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http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/websitevideos/?action=view¤t=YewPV2011.mp4 (http://s411.photobucket.com/albums/pp195/Del_the_Cat/websitevideos/?action=view¤t=YewPV2011.mp4)
It's only short so don't blink!
Del
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Gorgeous bow
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What wonderful looking character that one has! And from the pics.accurate as well ;) i have come to believe that it is the nature of your work.another job well done!!!
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Del the Cat I looked at some of the other videos you post there on photobucket and I just wanna know what that box contraption is. Looks like some type of graphing system where you wait for the line to plateau? What is that?
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Del the Cat I looked at some of the other videos you post there on photobucket and I just wanna know what that box contraption is. Looks like some type of graphing system where you wait for the line to plateau? What is that?
I think I posted it on here, but I can't find it.
If you look at my Bowyers Diary starting Friday 8th July and the following 3 posts it explains it and shows some of the build.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/07/hickmans-bow-weighing-machine.html (http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2011/07/hickmans-bow-weighing-machine.html)
It's an automatic force draw curve plotter, I just built it for the fun of it.
It doesn't work very reliably and needs rebuilding with decent bearings etc.
Del
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Looks like Twister is spittin those arrow pretty quick Del :)
Great clip, sure takes alot of time to upload to photobucket ... you have to keep them short or you will be there all night....
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Sweet looking bow!
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That's a beauty!!! Seems to spit arrows with authority as well. I just finished an Osage with propellar twist similar to that. Man! that was tough to tiller!! Good work as usual!
Josh
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Wow great bow del! keep um coming. SS
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Something else,nice. May I ask , are your pics posted through Photobucket or is there another way? Markus.
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Something else,nice. May I ask , are your pics posted through Photobucket or is there another way? Markus.
The ones in this post are via Photobucket.
Sometimes I'll edit small pics down, save at a lower resolution on my PC and then they can be attached directly to a post (200kByte limit I think)
Del
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Beautiful bow,very well done. :)
Pappy
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Gorgeous. I think it makes cooler bows to just "go with it" rather than straighten everything... that just makes everything uniform and boring again, :). Beautiful tiller, and nice all around.