Hi all,
I made the narrow hickory bow, thanks for all the info.
It is 1 1/8" wide, 68"ntn, 5/8" tips, grip is 7/8" thick, moving to 3/8" tips.
It matches the dimensions almost exactly for the Creek bow on page 53 TBB V2
I cut the nocks to be the same as the Creek bow, as well as induced tip reflex with heat.
Using the heat was actually very frustrating, since I broke the first bow I made from trying it. I had totally finished my first bow, but broke a limb while heat reflexing the tip, so I had to make an entire new bow, and those are the pics that you see. It was the first bow I broke, and extremely frustrating, because of so much time wasted.
If you take a look at the unstrung profile of the bow that I made, you can see it is extremely similar to the Creek bow previously mentioned. So, it is exciting to have what I consider a very close replica, to use a bow that could have been used by the Native Americans.
I took some canola oil and mixed powdered charcoal into it, then I rubbed that all over the bow. That is what filled in the grain of the hickory and also the turtle that I carved in the next pic. The turtle is actually off of the bow on page 52 of TBB V2, I put it at exact center on this bow, so I know to always let the arrow pass by the turtles head, no matter what side is up.
The turtle is an exact size replica, I used a photo copier and blew up page 53 until the back of the bow with the turtle was exactly as wide as the back of my bow in real life. Then I just cut it out, and traced around it. Then carved it out with a knife and some carving tools that I have.
As you can see in the full draw shot, the upper limb has a little more bend at mid limb. That is because I did the classic, "get the bow hot and bend it over the knee" trick, and so without a form its hard to get it right. I put a little more reflex in that upper limb, so it forces a little more bend at mid limb. Oh well, I usually shoot it with that limb at the top, so I have some positive tiller.
I do kind of like the tiller though, the outer tips are pretty stiff for low stack, the mid limb bends, but not enough to take to much set, a little less that 2 inches right after unstringing, and then it only bends very slightly through the hand, just enough to feel it.
This was the first bow that I used heat to reflex the tips, so now that I have a little bit of experience I hope to do better in the future.
Enjoy pics,
Jason
