Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Josh B on April 24, 2016, 05:48:47 pm
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This is a piece of red mulberry from my backyard. It came from a male tree which are less dense than the females, but generally grow straighter and cleaner. I left one sapwood ring on the back of this one and then glued on a faux copperhead skin with tbIII. It's 66" ntn and draws 50#@28". The tip overlays are cowhorn and the arrow shelf is some very old Osage. Fast flight string and tru-oil finish. It's far from perfect, but I'm in a hurry to get it done so that I can hand it off to its new owner this week. Hope he likes it. Josh
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The other shots.
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Nice bend as always Josh, the new owner should love it
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Nice bow Josh. 8)
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Sharp looking bow, Josh. You must be working on that while at work.
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Nice job, red mulberry brings back good memories of my first shooter.
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Really great work.
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Love mulberry. Always looks a bit overbuilt, but everything else about it is killer.
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Looks good to me !
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Great looking bow doc!
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Very nice! I like be it!
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New owner should be very happy. Love it.
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Looks good from here. How do you like the faux copperhead? I've been wondering how it looks.
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That's a sweet looking bow Josh
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Two Thumbs up Driver ! Bob
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Sweet.
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Very nice Josh
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nice work.
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Looks nice and clean!
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Looks good, might have to give those skins a try. According to my wife, males are more dense!
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Looks good, might have to give those skins a try. According to my wife, males are more dense!
Lol! My wife would certainly agree with that observation! I appreciate the kind words fellas! Now if only the load I need will happen, I will be able to hand deliver this stick.
Bjrogg- I've done a few bows with these and I like the look. The trick is to keep the edges from fraying when you cut em to fit. I do that by using undiluted tbIII to glue the whole strip down, making sure to get good glue coverage all over the back and a little down the sides. Stick the full width backing strip down making sure its straight with no air bubbles. Then I let the glue set for about an hour. I then trim all along the edge with an exacto knife leaving an 1/8" extra material around all the edges. Next I dilute some tbIII half and half with water and spread this all over the backing strip and let this soak in and dry for another hour and repeat. What this does is saturate the cloth with glue and keep fraying to a very minimum. It also fills in the weave so that its easier to achieve a glass like finish later. Once thats all done, I leave it to dry overnight and use a SHARP fine cut file, stroking from back to belly to cut the extra cloth off and establish the final edge of the backing. This will leave tool marks. When you sand those out, be sure to work the sandpaper in the same direction as you used the file. Once its all cleaned up, leave to dry for several days to get rid of all the moisture that soaked into the wood then apply 3-5 coats of finish let dry overnight and then buff with OOOO steel wool, clean up with tack cloth and repeat. This fills in the weave of the cloth and gives a nice finish. Josh
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Thank for the info never even thought of that as a problem I suppose the same would be true with linen. They sure look good from here nice job.
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Sharp looking bow, Josh. You must be working on that while at work
Yep...I have been doing most of the work on the road. Is it that obvious? I hope not...but if you're seeing something that needs corrected or addressed, I would be very grateful if you'd point it out while I still have a little time to fix it.
Bjrogg-I don't want to give the impression that the fake skins are difficult. In a lot of ways, they're actually easier than real skins. Josh
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I was curious what they looked like. They probably give bow a little more protection than real but I've never used either only sinew or rawhide thanks again
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Mulberry looks nice Josh.Nice info about cloth skins too.
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Great bend here and a nice belly view with that grain pattern at the handle and fades.
I have looked first at the pics and didn't realize that the skins are cloth ...
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very nice ,, congrats,, B :)
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Damn doc...kicking em out and they r lookn good!!!
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Thanks fellas! Much appreciated! Josh
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Great looking bow Josh! Looks like a good shooter
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Great looking bow! Nice job.
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All around the mulberry stave
The trucker chased his tiller
Gun Doc stopped to pull up his pants
TWANG! He's got a bow now!
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Hey Doc one more question on the fake skins do you wrap them with ace bandage or just press them in place and leave open air.
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Not too shabby at all, my friend. I have made one mulberry bow and I liked it. Seemed light and zippy.
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Hey Doc one more question on the fake skins do you wrap them with ace bandage or just press them in place and leave open air.
Sorry I took so long to respond to your question. I was a little distracted this last week. I just lay the cloth down on the glue and work it around with my fingers so the pattern is centered on the bow and the air bubbles are worked out. It won't try to curl like rawhide or cherrybark so there's no need to wrap it.
Thanks fellas! I handed this bow off to Otter as soon as I cut his trail and he put it through the paces. Maybe he'll chime in with his impression of it. Josh