HHB 72" self bow from high quality stave

[Philipp A]

First of all, happy new year to all of you!

I have the good fortune that I have a nice stand of HHB trees in my bush and I cut 3 nice 8-10" trees from late summer to the fall. The most interesting HHB tree, I cut in early August. It was at the highest spot in the bush and it flared towards the stump in wide fingers to the root system. This gave the bottom log cut in some segments almost flat sections.

When I cut the logs to size, I quickly debarked the logs and cut them into quarters to prevent cracking. After debarking, the pattern was the most beautiful I have seen to date on any of my HHB trees. it had very fine ribbing that gave a very beautiful texture to the stave once cut.

I wanted to make a bow that would bring out the beauty of the wood and thought I would make a bow that bends through the handle and has its widest point in the midsection of the bow.

Here are the specs:

72" ntn
75# @ 26"
mass: 706 gr
w/d handle: w 1 1/8"  d 7/8"
w/d midlimb: w 1 5/8" d 1/2"
w/d tips: w 5/8' d 1/2"

I have shot about 100 arrows with it so far and it has little set.

I am also enclosing a google photo link to more pics and at a higher resolution than available in here.

https://goo.gl/photos/XCECysaFNfqvTQam9

Let me know what you think of the bow, I think it is the best bow I have made so far.

Cheers,

Phil from Ontario, Canada

[upstatenybowyer]

That's one fine lookin, no-nonsense, beautifully bending and well-designed bow. Congrats!

[selfbow joe]

Very nice looking

[DC]

Good one! Pretty wood.

[Philipp A]

Thank you both for your comments, it is much appreciated. For those of you that don't like clicking links I am including a couple more pics (they are definitely nicer in the google photo link though  )

[MulchMaker]

That bow has the look of strength! Sweet looking bow.

[bubby]

🖒🖒🖒🖒🖒🖒🖒🖒

[simson]

Nice work, I like the sudbury front profile.
Looks like there is much more draw length in that bow.

[Philipp A]

Thanks Simon (and all the others that have provided comments),

Yes I believe there is more draw length the bow is capable of, but I maxed out at 75#   . I think I need to improve on my technique.

I agree that it is a Sudbury style profile. I actually didn't find out that this is close to what I was making, until I saw the profile in the Traditional Bowyer's Bible Volume III which I received for Christmas from my wife. I have actually been modelling the bow after a bow I have seen in the Canadian Museum of History. They have a beautiful Haida Gwaii exhibit and a great collection of bows, weapons  tools, canoes and other artifacts. I am including a pic of the bow I modelled mine after (the one on the very right). I ended up stretching it a bit and made it more narrow in the process.

Cheers,

Phil

[Springbuck]

Oh man I like it.  And if you made it just BARELY bend in the handle, you really executed the design you described super well.  Looks so cool.

That's one style I have started several times, with the longer narrowed middle section, and I don't know if I have a mental block or I'm scared or what, but I always end up tillering it more like a flatbow,:shorter fades, more abrupt width flares, stiff handle.

[Philipp A]

Hi Springbuck,

Thanks for your comments. I think the key I was able to make such a strong bow out of that piece of wood (other than its length), was the fact that the stave didn't have much of a crown and that it was of excellent quality. I managed to do a much better job in tillering as well, than in some of my previous bows.

I have previously had trouble making strong draw weights from heavily crowned staves and I have experienced some failures on the back of the bow in the mid-section of the upper limb. All of those bows where pyramid style bows which had narrower mid-sections. I also didn't make the upper limb longer in the past which I have changed on this bow with the upper limb being 1" longer.

I have not yet used my Chrony to measure the arrow speed and will do so once we catch a warm day.

Thanks again to all for commenting, your feedback is important to me.

Cheers,

Phil

[willie]

I like it. good execution and traditional design.

even had to go look around the museum website some, and found this interesting bow...

http://www.historymuseum.ca/collections/artifact/65307/?q=bow&page_num=1&item_num=21&media_irn=209974

[Philipp A]

Thanks Willie and thanks for the museum link. I have not seen this bow on display. That is quite the recurve on that bow!