Vine Maple sapling bow

[Gordon]

Here is a bow that I made for a friend of mine. Brad had surgery on his shoulder and will be unable to pull the 60-70 lbs bows that he is accustomed to for some time. While visiting Brad at his cabin in the Oregon Cascades I spied a vine maple sapling on his property that looked like it would make a lightweight bow in the primitive bow style that he prefers. I showed Brad the tree and he quickly agreed to my plan.

The stave started with a little bit of reflex, but after I roughed out a bow and let it dry it took on a whooping 7” of reflex.  But that’s vine maple for you – it grows naturally with a tremendous amount of tension on the wood and when that tension is released by splitting and drying, it will often curl up on you.  A lot of that tension induced reflex will come out as the bow is tillered, but it makes things interesting at first. The bow settled in at 2 Ύ” of reflex after tillering.

The bow is 59” ntn, pulls 42# @ 28” and bends through the handle slightly. The width is 1 Ό”, 1 3/8” and ½” at the handle, mid-limb, and tips respectively. I used a combination of green and light brown leather dye for the stain. I left splotches of cambium on the back to create a sort of camo effect. There are no tip overlays or arrow rest because Brad wanted a bow that he could use for primitive shoots. It is finished with 9 coats of Tru-Oil and has a Strunk-style handle wrap.
 

[Bonsai]

Beautiful Bow!

[DanaM]

Very nicely executed D bow Gordon, love the full draw on it.

[BryanB]

That bow turned out great!
Still maintained a fair amount of reflex.
Brad will be thrilled.
Bryan

[El Destructo]

                  Gotta Love that Vine Maple.....some Spunky Damned Wood....I love it!! Very Nice Job Gordon........

[Okie]

WOW!!!   Simply Beautiful, Gordon. You're a great inspiration.

[PeteC]

Beautiful bow,I like it.Good Job.  God Bless

[robbsbass]

Nice bow Gordon,but then again, your bows are always beautiful

[Denham Archer]

Very good job! 

[salad days]

Beautiful bow! I was lucky enough to have inspected Rick Trojanowski's vine maple over the holidays. I was very supprised to see how much curl and figure that wood has that you can't really see in pictures. The grain also has a ton of iridescence that looks stunning under True Oil. Well done sir.

[Blacktail]

the artist does it again...love it gordon...i hope your freind loves it as much as i would .....thanks for sharing john

[Jesse]

 VERY Cool bow Gordon. You got that tillering thing down

[burn em up chuck]

      very very nice, keep the sapling bows coming. i've been studiing every one. i have some vinemaple and even a yew sapling i want bows out of.

                                                               chuck

[Gordon]

Thank you Bonsai.

Thank you Dana, I really like how a D-bow looks and shoots.

Thank you Bryan - I was surprised at the amount of reflex the bow held

Thank you El D. I cut my teeth on vine maple so I guess I'll always have a soft spot for it

Thank you for the kind words Okie.

Thank you Pete, I'm glad you like it.

Thank you James.

Thank you Denham.

Thank you October. Vine maple grain has a lot of "character". On the plus side it is beautiful when stained. On the minus side it's a bit*h to scrape.

Thank you John. I can't say there is all that much artistry in this bow - with saplings you pretty much get what you see. The trick is in the tillering.

Thank you Jesse

Thank you Chuck. Sapling bows are fun, but they can be tricky because of the high crown and character.

[Stickhead]

Every one of your bows is impressive and humbling.  This one is truly ELEGANT.
-Tom