Hi!
I made this bow from hawthorn with an average diameter of about 1 1/4 inches for a sapling bow contest in a german bowyer forum. It's the first wood bow I've made in a year and I am very happy how it turned out, so I like to share it with you. Measuring 72 1/2 inches ntn it is probably a bit long for your tastes, but I like it that way. In any case I could not have made it shorter without steam bending additional "snakyness" to keep the string in line with the grip. It will be clear from the pictures.
The bow draws 46#@28". I added the linen patches on the knots, because I originally planned for a heavier bow and as I never worked with hawthorne before I was not sure how much it can take. Give the small diameter I also could not add width at the knots, so this was safer. I will replace the patches with new ones when I get new linen. The present ones were partially removed by the tillering. I hope you enjoy the pictures!
This the stave before I started working it.
All pics are thumbs, please click to see the larger versionsString alignment
I needed the vice to keep the bow from dropping from the tiller tree because of the single sided snakyness (is that actually a word?).
Unbraced:
Braced:
Tiller:
Tiller with ellipse. I planned to make both limbs bend equally, but since there was almost no set in the reflex limb I decided to let it bend a little more because I like symmetry in bows.
Drawn with a 32" arrow.
The grip wrapping feels good, but it is irregular because the cross-section is not the same through its length.
Cherry overlays:
Daniel
