Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Pat B on July 08, 2008, 10:13:29 am
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A few years ago Don (Old Bow) sent me a yew log that he hauled out of the Montana wilderness on his bicycle. 8) Shortly after I received it it began to check badly. I set it in the corner and not too long ago I pulled it out and following the checks I got 3 staves out of it. This bow was born from the best of the 3 staves. She is 65" t/t, pulls 50#@26", bends through the 1 14" handle and shoots surprisingly well with very little hand shock. She will be one of my hunting bows this fall. 8)
As you can see, this bow has issues...knots, twists, hoop-tee-dos, etc but the gods were on my side! I did not use any heat to make adjustments but instead worked the stave to compensate for her imperfections. I did however use copious amounts of super glue in some knots and most of the voids. The finish on her is just hand rubbed bear fat...about 6 coats so far.
Because of the thin rings of this stave some violations of the sap wood are apparent on the back but so far that doesn't seem to matter. The heart wood grain is incredibly beautiful with the hand rubbed oil finish. The tip overlays are water buffalo I got from Thomas (can't remember his last name ::) ) and the handle wrap is hemp cordage from Wally World. I don't have full draw pics yet but plan to this afternoon. Enjoy! Pat
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...and a few more. More this evening! ;)
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Hi Pat
What a great bow, love all the knots. You have made an excellent bow out of a difficult stave.
Good hunting!
Peter(UK)
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Thanks Peter. I love the challenge of a difficult stave. Yew lends itself to these character type bows from what I can tell from this one. Generally yew is too delicate for me but this stave has enough knots to make it tougher! ;D Pat
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Looks good Pat. The tiller looks good. I think I would have shaved it down around that one knot a little bit more, but I guess if theres no hand shock its not a problem. ;D
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Nicely done Pat. Nothing like a character bow to build up your patience. ;)
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Awesome Pat, you done well. Those knots give it alot of character. At first I thought the same about the big upper knot near the tip, but hard to tell from a pic if you could have gone inside it. The tips and overall profile look great for not useing any heat for corrections. Congratulations.
After looking again I doubt that you could have removed that knot. I think you made a good call. Just for curiosity what kind of ring count did it have?Keenan
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That took skill to pull off. Nice job!
When I first saw the knot on the upper limb, I thought I would have dipped in the width profile to avoid it. But then I saw on the belly side that the knot goes into the belly nearly halfway (the knot bisects the limb at an angle, not straight through). Given that, you had to include the knot in the limb, and you apparently found a successful way to do it.
A very interesting bow, indeed.
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Yew Rule, Pat
Picture is what log looked like in the beginning:
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Nice job Pat on what looks like a very challenging stave.Don't you just love them character
staves. :) Looks like a meat maker to me. :)
Pappy
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Without Don's effort, this bow would still be in the wilderness of Montana. Thanks again, Don.
Keenan, I'd tell you what the ring count is but my eyes aren't that good, anymore. ::) On one of the tips I counted( ???) about 17 rings in 3/8".
I did what I had to do around the knots to make it work. Some knots went straight through but others went across the stave. On the top limb you will see what looks like a hinge about 1/2 way out. It might be more apparent with the full draw pic later. That area was fairly thin after splitting the stave and the hinge appeared after I thought the tiller was complete. I had to remove wood from either side of that area and then reduce the bottom limb to accommodate the loss of weight in the upper limb. I'll continue to watch that area just in case.
Thanks guys. This was a fun stave to work on. Everyone needs to challenge themselves with a stave like this. It makes for a good teaching aid! :o ;D Pat
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Sweet bow, Pat-I likes 'em gnarly.
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Well that knot makes a good string keeper anyways..... ;)
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It does make a good string keeper! ;) I left the branch in that knot a bit proud...about 1/4" long and that and the bulge around it works great to keep the string up on the limb. ;D
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Nice work Pat. That baby has a few knots doesn't it. Justin
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Can we nominate this for Bow of the Month?
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great job and bow gives me hope for some of the character yew starves i have evldwrf
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Cool looking knotty bow Pat! I like that string keeper too :).
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Pat, that's a great looking bow. Jawge
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I sure do love that yew wood and your bow just makes me smile. Really nice.
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Thanks Guys. Gordon, she makes me smile also. ;D
I didn't get around to the full draw pic today. ::) Lets see what tomorrow brings. ;) Pat
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That's a real nice and unique bow there Pat. Pretty cool how that tree went from MT to NC and then became a nice bow!
Alan
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Pat, that is truly a beautiful bow, but I'm worried about your deer target, I think it has a skin condition.
VB
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Pat, that is at once a very ugly and a very beautiful bow...good job!
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Verey interesting and beautiful bow nice work pat..
dave
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There's just something about YEW bows.........
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How about a full draw pic?
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Thanks everyone. This was a fun and interesting project. Yew is a great wood to work with. I hope I'm not too rough with this bow as I know how soft yew is.
Sorry about no full draw pic yet. Hopefully I can get to it today. Thanks for being patient! ;) Pat
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That's a looker . I like those knots too.
Ralph
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wow that is a super cool stave / bow.
Love the upper knot that you worked around. Gotta see that one in person.
Looks like your deer has seen better days tho.
wade
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Hey Pat
I really like the bow all them lumps and curves remind me of an old girlfriend.
R.C.
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At last I finally got a full draw pic.......
Hey RC, I think I knew her. ::)
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You will notice what looks like a hinge about a foot down from the upper tip. That is a hoop-te-doo. There is another one on the other side but about an inch above that one looks the same from the other side but the bow doesn't hinge there.....anymore! ;D
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good looking tiller..have you ever had the string get a hold to your beard????
david
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only with a compound. :o
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nice one pat.i was wondering how good the yew wood was in montana.i love the knot in the bow.the thing i like the most is pats big beard.every time i see a photo of you i all ways want to grow my beard out.thanks for the pics.jonh
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John, I haven't worked much yew but this is as good as any from what I can tell. The knots and bumps just add to the excitement. ;D I got this yew from Old Bow and he uses Montana yew quite a bit. After riding his bike for tens of miles to haul a log back home, I guarantee he uses most he gets. ;) Pat
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Thanks for the tiller pic, Pat. Nice job again, btw.
Good lord, that's a manly beard! I grew one last winter but I kept it pretty short. :)
me on beards: http://analogperiphery.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-ishouston.html
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This beard has been growing since June of '69. I'd be afraid to see what was under it now! :o
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Yew done good on dat one Pat :)
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This beard has been growing since June of '69. I'd be afraid to see what was under it now!
Marcia made him grow it out so she wouldn't flinch every time she looked at him. ;D
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She has never seen me without it. Thats why we've been married for over 30 years! ;D
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My True Love encouraged me to grow the beard, and cried when I shaved off it off!
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She liked the tickle! ;D
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Man, I thought Carrying a bow on my bike was hard :o
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Hey Pat,
I noticed you said you violated a few rings on the back when you were making this bow, has it had any effect on it in the long run?
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Awesome bow there Pat. Great work
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What a beauty Pat, as always , You done good!!!!
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what a cool bow!
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very nicely done, beautiful bow
chuck
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Thanks guys. That bow was built a year ago. It still shoots well.
Michael, yew is one of the few woods(if not the only) that some grain violations are not a problem. As long as the back doesn't have abrupt violations or dips into a ring you should be OK. Generally with yew the grain is relatively thin if not extremely thin and difficult to chase without some violations. This particular bow has quite a bit of grain violations on it's back and it has knots and other character issues.
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I'm late seeing this beauty, very fine job Pat on a challenging piece of wood! ;)
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Wow is all I can say. Very cool bow.
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My brother picked up some Juniper from a ranch we go hunting on in Oregon. He made a 33" bow that draws to 20" and it has pretty much a hundred ring violations! He just cut it out he didn't do any ring chasing or anything ??? anyone know what kind of juniper this is? I am making one right now from the stuff. So Yew isn't the only!!
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Oh I forgot to mention the grain is way way thin on that juniper also.
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Thanks guys. That bow was built a year ago. It still shoots well.
Michael, yew is one of the few woods(if not the only) that some grain violations are not a problem. As long as the back doesn't have abrupt violations or dips into a ring you should be OK. Generally with yew the grain is relatively thin if not extremely thin and difficult to chase without some violations. This particular bow has quite a bit of grain violations on it's back and it has knots and other character issues.
Thanks that's encouraging I have a stave right now that is pretty knotty like this one and I am pretty sure its going to break but I have to try anyway ;D I kept trying to get to one ring and kept getting into another ring before I knew it and didn't know how much it mattered. The violations aren't too bad, but the only other pieces of wood I have worked are Osage and elm. I knew Osage was particular about staying on one ring and I haven't figured out how well elm takes violations yet but I seem to be having the same problem with rings on it. To many thin rings and I don't think I picked a wide enough ring to follow, so I will probably learn a good lesson on tension and compression :)
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A simple backing of silk, linen, rawhide or even brown grocery bag paper glued down with TBII or TBIII will go a long way to helping them hold together. On thin ringed osage I always add a rawhide backing. This yew bow had a few miladies but I wanted to keep it naked to see how it would act. So far, so good! ;D
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Youre the man Pat. Beautiful character bow and plenty of medicine to go with it. Very nice work on a tough piece, came out good. wish you success with it this fall. Have a good Independence Day. Kenneth
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Oh heck I just realized this was a last years bow, was just trying to see why it was not in bow of the month compitetion. Awsome bow still, hope you are still enjoying it.
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Pat B, True craftsmanship on a challenging piece of wood. Always enjoy your posts, whether its bow or arrows. Thanks for sharing!!!
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Nice bow Pat, must have took a lot of patience and experience to pull that off!!! I'm impressed with how you guys across the sea deal with knots, I'm always scared off by Knotty staves, I must try one and get some knot working experience you have inspired me to try. thanks
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Great job Pat!!I really like that bow.It looks like a sweet shooter to me.As far as huntin',it's only 12 weeks away. ;) God Bless
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Gosh Pete,hunting season coming up fast! With all the new interest in this bow, I pulled her off the wall and shot my new tapered ash arrows. They are heavy(600gr+) and this bow shoots them well.
Dragonman, A knotty stave will teach you a life time worth of tricks even if you don't make a bow. A few years ago a friend gave me 3 osage throw away staves. Pure firewood! Knots, twists, bends and almost anything else you hate to see in a stave. I spent that winter studying these staves and eventually I made 5 shootable bows from these three bastards. I learned more that winter than many other winters making bows. Do yourself a favor and tackle a difficult stave. Even if it doesn't pan out into a bow, the experiences are priceless. ;)