I made this Elder bow a few weeks ago, Elder is a quit good bow wood , very good under compression but a straight grown peace is hard to find .
Here is the Elder bush i took the stave from
well not really straight, and a long crack on the reflex side of the limb
debarked it and marked the centerline
after a bit of work with the drawknife it started to look like bow
well, about 2" of deflex and not straight at al
deflex
very thin rings
can you see them
the weight of the bow , the handle wasn't cut out at that time:
more work with the draw knife in the handle area:
almost a bow
It has a few really big knots on it, must be carefull with them.
the floor tiller was easy , here first time with the string on it
on the tiller tree
very stiff and to much draw weight
better, but still not good
I'm happy with that, i know there are still stiff parts , but i don't want it to bend to much in the area where the big knots are
It bends slightly through the handle.
OK, time to straighten the limbs, actually i never thought that the elder would come that far because of the knots and its very very fine ringed.
with the heat pistol and a bucket of nails for weight
Thats the way it should look like , good result.
Now its about time to clean the workspace, tools are everywhere but not there where they should be
the next step is to clean the bow to get a nice surface
i use a few different kind of scrapers ans sandpaper
handle area is still dirty
finished, now the surface is smooth and clean no toolmarks left
back
belly
end weight
tools I've used on the last steps
