It's been two years since I visited the last Euromeet in Bulgaria, a bowyers meeting organized by a member on PaleoPlanet. Unfortunately, this summer there appears to be no international meeting due to various circumstances. Nevertheless I kept the Bulgarian legacy alive by creating this flatbow from a stave of black locust (
Robinia pseudo-acacia) I was able to bring back home from the Euromeet in 2010. I felt privileged to be able to attend that meeting and meet everyone that was present. Iliana, our host and mother, kindly provided us with a large supply of ash and black locust. I had plenty of wood myself, so I didn't get the first pick. That means the stave I took had some knots to deal with. But the stave was fairly straight, had good rings, and looks pretty good besides the knots. I knew from the
Euromeet 2008 that black locust from Bulgaria is better than the locust from my own country, so it was a logical step to turn this second pick stave into a sweet bow.
The sapwood was removed, except for a small streak over the handle, where I left one layer of extra wood. The removal of bark and sapwood allows you to see what's underneath. As soon as the back was nice and clean, I could lay out the bow in width. I avoided a few knots near the tips and placed a few other knots in the center of the limbs. I'd rather have a knot in the center of the width, than on the edge of the limb. It's a pretty straight forward flatbow, nearly a pyramid. The tips are pretty narrow (about 3/8") and have small overlays to avoid cutting grooves in the sides of the tips. I embedded a small Jay feather onto the lower limb with some varnish, just to add a small personal touch. Tillering was not difficult, but the small knots made for a few stiff spots. Especially the upper midlimb appears somewhat stiff, due to an elongated cluster of small knots. I couldn't make this section bend, so I had to compensate by leaving the bow a bit long with 71 inches. The bow has not been heat treated or - corrected and has maybe 1½" of set.
Some statistics:Black locust selfbow.
Mexican Kingwood tip overlays.
Leather handle with small leather arrow rest.
71" NTN
53#@28"
Finish is water based varnish.
Well, the pictures! I did my best, hope you like them
![Smiley :)](http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/Smileys/default/smiley.gif)
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/BL%20Bulgarian%20flatbow/P1090852.jpg)
Unbraced side profile. Pardon the ugly camera tripod.
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/BL%20Bulgarian%20flatbow/P1090859.jpg)
Front (width) profile.
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/BL%20Bulgarian%20flatbow/P1090836.jpg)
Braced.
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/BL%20Bulgarian%20flatbow/P1090835.jpg)
Full draw.
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/BL%20Bulgarian%20flatbow/P1090856.jpg)
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/BL%20Bulgarian%20flatbow/P1090862.jpg)
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/BL%20Bulgarian%20flatbow/P1090855.jpg)
Tip detail. You can see the overlay and ring count as well.
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/Yew%20ELB%20olive%20tips/P1090827.jpg)
My two most recent bows, along with a batch of bamboo arrows.
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/Yew%20ELB%20olive%20tips/P1090879.jpg)
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/Yew%20ELB%20olive%20tips/P1090878.jpg)
The other bow is a yew English longbow. I'll create a topic for that one later
![Wink ;)](http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif)
![](http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c316/JorikSwier/Yew%20ELB%20olive%20tips/P1090877.jpg)
Comments or suggestions are always most welcome.
Jorik