Our traditional archery club was fortune to have John come over from the coast to spend 2 days with us. I had a rather challenging, and marginal, piece of yew that I thought would be fun to try and make a bow out of. It had many woodpecker spots on it and through it. So I think I'll call it "Woody". It came out to 58#@27", 66" ntn. I was hoping for 55-60 lbs...got lucky. Still have a lot of sanding, more shaping of tips, put leather wrap on handle and put a finish on it. I've shot it about 40 times. Marginal string follow so far.
Sure was a fun couple of days. Love the way John teaches and goes about making a bow. Kind of reminds me of how a bush pilot that never went to any fancy flying school...just learned it by doing it. And like this pilot there was times, as a passenger, that I felt a little afraid of the result! haha One thing that needed to be addressed in this stave was a rather large decayed knot. Some yew sawdust had to be mixed with glue to fill the void.
This bow really throws an arrow. After it is done and I have spent time with it it may become my hunting bow this year. It really likes 60# douglas fir arrows. The string passes almost center of handle. I thought it would like 50/55#'s...but 55/60#'s are going to be more to it's liking.
