Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Del the cat on January 15, 2021, 09:52:31 am
-
We cut down a fast grown Walnut tree at my brother's place end of January last year, it was about 30 years old and had borne fruit for several years... he cut it down 'cos it was overhanging the neighbours property and the leaves had fallen into his little garden pond and killed the fish. It was all sapwood! I got 3 staves out of it, all heavily reflexed, two with bark on and one from further into the tree which also had a big sideways bend.
I worked on that stave just to see what the wood was like (the rings were 1/2" thick in places!)... I went at it like a bull at a gate so as to have a quick try.
Steam bending took out the reflex, then I cut away some at the grip to allow it to bend sideways and steam bent it sideways. It has some ring violations running the length of the limbs due to how the stave was roughed out (still even got some slight saw marks across the back!)
I made a mess of roughing it out on the bandsaw and created a weak spot... which looked horrendous first time on the tiller at only 20#(first pic) :o!
However after some shortening of the limbs and heat treating, I got it to target weight 40# @ 27" ... pic shows it at 28"
I was amazed... it's kept a hint of reflex and shoots fast and sweet... I have high hope for the better staves, which will have nice clean backs. I'd expected it to take set, chrysal or just be slow.
It's 61.5" ttt. 2 1/8" wide at the widest.
I've not bothered to finish it off at the moment... I'll see how it shoots through the chrono, then maybe finish it as a field shooting bow.
I did 8 videos showing progress from staves to finished bow, which are on my Youtube channel as a play list:-
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBz2tD9476KRuVA_Fkpzav-457zLavBU5 (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBz2tD9476KRuVA_Fkpzav-457zLavBU5)
which shows how I recovered from that horrible starting point! Hopefully it will be useful for some newbies...
It was certainly interesting to play with something different.
Del
PS... In the full draw pic, the dark area near the right tip (from heat treating) creates a bit of an optical delusion ;) making it look weak/hinged
-
Nice tiller, hope it holds together.
-
Nice the way you got your limbs to balance up from what you had when you started. I have made quite a few self bows from clear ,clean Walnut saplings. It can make a nice bow. I always had to heat treat the belly until it turned nearly black , but not burnt to minimize set, and keep the belly from fretting. With no knots the back is bullet proof. Thick ringed. Looks like yours will be just fine, and you are right it doesn't have to be super premium wood to make a nice bow.
-
looks like an awesome save. well done sir
-
Not bad at all :) Good save :)
-
I have been following along with this build on your channel. Nice work on that bow.
-
Nice bow Mr Cat. Look forward to seeing the rest of that tree
Bjrogg
-
Excellent videos, excellent teaching, excellent work.
Thanks for sharing!
-
Excellent videos, excellent teaching, excellent work.
Thanks for sharing!
Cheers, always nice to get some feed back :)
Del
-
Thats a heck of a bend for walnut. Well done to maintain some reflex in the end.
Mike
-
Follow your videos. As usual, I learned something new. And this bow was no exception. Great work as always.
-
Impressive job wrestling a great tiller out of a challenging piece. Nicely done Del.
-
Del, Looks like the heartless walnut, still has plenty of ticker.
Really enjoyed the videos too.
-
Just finished watching all the videos. Thank you very much, I learned a lot in problem solving different situations that I probably would have set the stave aside and started on a new one. Way to find the bow in that piece of wood. Job well done.