Greetings from Finland!
After finishing my previous ELB-stylish HBHB in the beginning of November I´ve now, in the beginning of December, succeeded to make another ELB stylish bow. This bow combines the world as the British Commonwealth did earlier: Bamboo back and water buffalo horn decorations from East, Bulletwood core from South, Osage Orange belly from West and the bowyer from North... :-)
First I glued 15 mm osage thick billets at handle by Z-joint and after planing that a 5 mm thick bulletwood slice on top of it. I used Titebond III for this. Then I formatted a bamboo slice near the final bow width, 30 mm at handle and mid limbs and 15 mm at nocks. Then I sanded the slice down to 4 - 5 mm at edges and glued it on top of bulletwood, now 4 mm, with Urac-185. No reflex induced, the stave was kept staright while drying.
After drying I sawed the stave according to the bamboo shape and the osage slices got from the nock ends I glued on the belly side to thicken the handle area. Then I shaped the sides to final bow width, 26 mm at handle to mid limbs and to 12 mm at nocks. After rounding the bamboo backing´s edges normal tillering work started by removing extra wood from belly side. When the bow was bending enough for shorter string I attached the horn nocks wit Araldite and continued the tillering proces after that. After test shooting I made the handle from a bag found from a flea market. I tried to deepen the brownish colour of the leather by bathing it in coffee before sewing it on the handle.
My aim was to reach the same poundage as with the earlier made HBHB-bow and I succeeded precisely: 74 lbs @ 28". The bow length is 70,5" between the string grooves. So, now I´ve got two bows ready for IFAA Indoor World Championships, WIAC 2015, Pärnu, Estonia, next March.
Some photos attached - Hope you´ll like this.
T: Esa
