Sculptural bow builds

[Mistergone]

Hi all,
I've been lurking and learning for about a year now and have finally gotten the courage to share the few bows I've built so far. First thing to know is that I graduated with a BFA in sculpture years ago but that mindset still completely dictates the look and design of my bows. I've slowly been learning how to integrate my more sculptural qualities into functional bows (I got into bow making purely as a decorative prop thing but soon couldn't help but make them fully functional). I've been working mainly with hard maple and a few early bows from red oak, I back everything with silk to minimize potential rookie mistakes and to compensate for any weakness my carvings introduce. Once I get a commissioned wall sculpture out of the way I plan on doing a bamboo backed walnut bow with ebony tips (so frackin excited!) Anyways, I'd love to hear all comments, I got used to brutal honestly early in my schooling so go nuts, and if anyone has any advice on walnut bows I'd really love to hear it.








And if you have any questions about any of the bows fire away, Its a bit lonely being the only one around me that enjoys bow building

[Will H]

Wow! Those are some cool lookin bows!

[LivingElemental]

That's pretty incredible. What do you use to carve those with?

[Nifty]

That work is impressive, you're obviously very talented. I'd love to see some closer shots of some of the details!

[Mistergone]

That's pretty incredible. What do you use to carve those with?

I'll probably get some flack for this but since I work as a metal fab guy I'm very comfortable with grinders, dremel tools and the like so I use those for everything from the tillering to the decorative carvings. All my bows start out as 2"x2" pieces of lumber and then after cutting them down I begin tillering, once I'm relatively sure they aren't going to explode or fail in some horrible manner I start carving out the handle and fades.  By using 2x2 stock I can do a fair amount of carving all on one single piece of wood, which is important to me.

[SA]

yes more detail... awsome work.

[Mistergone]

That work is impressive, you're obviously very talented. I'd love to see some closer shots of some of the details!

Thanks! Here are a few detail shots along with one of my machete builds, the blade is A400 steel and the handle is pure ebony with multiple tung oil coats.

[ErictheViking]

To be brutaly honest.....those are Awesome! only concern would be cutting away the back really close to the fades where they may need the back intact to keep them from exploding and damaging that well cropped mohawk.

[medicinewheel]

Unique!

[Mistergone]

To be brutaly honest.....those are Awesome! only concern would be cutting away the back really close to the fades where they may need the back intact to keep them from exploding and damaging that well cropped mohawk.

As of yet all failures I've had (and they've always been on the tillering stand, knock on wood...) always occur in the middle of the limbs, never near the fades. That might be pure luck or...um..luck I guess. One of the main reasons I've done most of my work with hard maple is due to the fact that it's been so forgiving when it comes to putting up with my designs, plus the fact that I use relativity thick silk for backing and tend of build my bows wide and thick probably helps keep the breakage rate down.

(damaging the mohawk would truly be a tragedy, its the only hair style that looks remotely decent on me, go figure.)

[JW_Halverson]

Some of the work reminds me of furniture carvings.  Nice flights of fancy (pun intended).   You'd be very popular at ComiCon with those!!!

[Mistergone]

Some of the work reminds me of furniture carvings.  Nice flights of fancy (pun intended).   You'd be very popular at ComiCon with those!!!

Funny you should mention ComiCon since we just had Minneapolis's version a few days ago, much drinking and sci-fi/ fantasy panel debates!. 
The truth is I'm a nerd through and through and since I focused mainly on prop building during school all my stuff tends to have a fantastical twist to it. One of the things I'm truly enjoying about bow building is that it always demands a balance between form and function, that's always been kind of a creed to me and with these it forces me to live up to it, otherwise doom. 

[dbb]

Really cool bows,and beautiful work!
Like the others i would love to se more detail.
It would also be fun to know what drawweight they are.

/Mikael

[warpath]

  Your bows look really familiar. Where would I have seen them before?

   G

[lesken2011]

Those are definitely examples of a new king of "character" bow!!