Hey everyone! I've been putting in a lot of time traveling for work and so I haven't spent a lot of time on bows for a few months.
I happened upon this American hornbeam sapling in North Carolina a couple of months ago and squeezed in the time I could to whittle away at it after work on the road.
I haven't posted a completed bow yet, and I figured it is about time.
The tiller isn't perfect, but I think that 64" is long enough to not kill it at my 25" draw. There's a fair bit of character and I think I'm starting to get a feel for this tillering stuff. Letting go of the focus on short bows seems to make them much better at not snapping, and this thing has a much smoother draw than anything else I have made since my first couple that were long red oak boards.
It's about 1.5" wide and doesn't narrow at all until the last 8" on the bottom limb and about 12" on the top.
It's sitting at about 1" of set after a hundred or so arrows through it. The outer bark not being removed was not part of my original plan, but I decided to run with it and now it has such a feral look that I think it was the right call. It has horizontal cracks all over it, and I don't think the bark is actually taking any tension load. Surely it would have broken if that was the case.
This is the second bow I've named, and the one I am the most fond of by far. Enkidu is the wild man in the story of Gilgamesh who gets tamed and ends up having all sorts of adventures afterwards.
I'm looking forward to people looking at me like I am crazy when I walk in the woods with half of a walking stick to hunt pigs and deer.
It is going to get a natural fiber or rawhide string at some point soon and probably no serving or nocking point just to look at primitive as possible.
Thanks for checking it out.
https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzXeRg
