The Transatlantic Bow AKA 'Special Relationship'
The Oregon Yew billets kindly sent to me by a guy named Joe unfortunately had bug damaged sapwood. One pair became a bamboo backed ELB.
This bigger pair were destined for greater things
, when, in November I'd got a big log of English Yew which had thick sapwood on one side, and an idea was born.
I ran the English Yew sapwood through the bandsaw taking off a continuous strip of sapwood, which being so thin was seasoned pretty quickly.
The plan was to glue this up as a continuous backing onto the spliced Oregon Yew billet belly.
I left the bark on the sapwood backing and shaved and rasped the sawn face of it to a flat even profile for gluing, it actually had a nasty twist at one end which needed steaming out. Some heat bending was needed on the glued up billets too as there wasn't any spare wood to play with.
I glued it up with about an inch or so of reflex.
My masterstroke was to take off the bark with a spokeshave, leaving a pinkish layer of cambium on which I could mark out the bow.
The cambium would pop off with a 'tick' as the bow was flexed on the tiller right?
Oh, no it was thicker than I thought and came off with a crack like a rifle shot which frightened the crap out of me and for a moment I thought a whole layer of sapwood had come off.
As tillering progressed the rest of it loosened or popped off leaving a pristine perfect single ring back.
In the video on my blog here...
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/big-bow-braced.htmlYou can see and hear a little bit come off with a 'tick'
Being a continuous back also had the advantage of making the bow substantially stronger at the join.
The bow was destined for a guy at the club who was relatively new to archery but was outgrowing bows at an alarming pace. The aim was about 70# at 28” but tillered out to a full 32”. Obviously that’s not the best way to try and build a bow, but the limiting factor was the wood which would dictate the maximum poundage I could get.
Originally he’d wanted a leather grip and arrow plate, but the plan evolved to leave a simple bare wood bow with a Bowyer’s Mark, which is a play my initials DH.
The final shot shows a the happy recipient with a 32" shafted arrow at full draw.
Stats ~75" ntn about 65-70# @28"... anyone's guess at 32"... Im not winching that baby back slow enough to measure it
The tiller of the bow is arguably a tad on the whip tillered/over elliptical compared to my usual arc of a circle, but I left some extra thickness at the splice for security.
Del
