Elm Stave Bow

[randman]

Haven't seen any bending yet but one thing I notice from looking at the side view of the thickness is that your thickness taper is inconsistent. The belly needs to follow the dips and valleys on the back keeping a gradual taper thinner towards the tips. I can see thick spots and thinner spots and thick spots downwind (towards the tips) from thinner spots....those types of areas have been the death of a few of my sticks of wood until I learned that lesson the hard way....If you have a thick spot downwind from a thin spot, it will either break at the thin spot or get severe chrysals there.

[PlanB]

Randman, thanks. Photos can be deceptive. What you can't see are that, there are convolutions across the back as well as along it, and I'm working with those. It's a definite character bow. The tips and fade areas have also been left heavy at this point intentionally. It's just not possible to show you what's going on properly in a photo like that, and it was in a roughed out state, so yes it does look uneven in thickness taper, and probably will in a long view even finished.

But I think I have a good shot at tillering it successfully. My last bow did manage about 1000 arrows and was from a sapling with some interesting twists and knots itself. I think the one I'm doing now is easier. Here are some photos of that earlier bow -- my second bow:

[GlisGlis]

very nice bow! I like it alot
could you post a closeup of the handle?

[PlanB]

Glis Glis, It was a piece of wild grape vine, peeled of the rough outer bark, and fitted with a very slight amount of rocker to allow the bow's handle area to bend. Grape vine is also quit flexible anyway, so with a binding, I hoped it wouldn't restrict the bow movement.

[PlanB]

Then I used Bushboy's elm bark handle wrap method -- which he detailed elsewhere in a great thread here.

I basically tied the elm bark off as shown here very tight, and then trimmed off the tag end still shown, here. It did need a very small amount of glue between the end of the wrap and the place it was tied to keep it from coming out or loosening, but I tried not to immobilize the handle with glue against the bow belly. This lasted fine through 1000 arrows, which is when I retired the bow because of a small splinter on the back.

I don't have a finished photo of the handle with the arrow pass and "floppy rest" but the rest and pass were done the same way as leather would have been, except it's quite a bit stiffer with bark. If you look at the finished handle three photos up you can just see the doubled up bark arrow rest sticking out of the wrap.

[bushboy]

Looks good,my only concern is that you docked the limbs flush with the back?i kinda let them stand proud by about 1/2".but it's elm,they don't come much tougher.Btw your wrap looks great!good luck!

[PlanB]

Thanks bushboy. Your handle wrap method worked great!

Though I don't quite know what you mean about docking the limbs with the back -- ahhh, maybe you meant the knots.

The pics above are actually of an earlier bow I made out of a black birch sapling, not elm. The big knot did get rounded up a little proud, but the pic doesn't show it well. That was my second bow. It developed a very small splinter near a tip -- but it wasn't at a knot, after about 1000 arrows, so I stopped shooting it.

The elm stave bow I'm working on now is my third bow. Sorry about any confusion between the two, and going OT!

Back on topic -- here's the progress on the elm stave bow. I got it to brace, the string alignment has stayed true, and here's what the the front view looks like:

[PlanB]

After some work on it, I decided to try a few arrows. This was the absolute first set through the bow at 15 yards, and I was very surprised at how consistently it shot. I'm not an experienced archer, and have used mainly a 60" 40 lb Fred Bear recurve. With that, I was nowhere as consistent in grouping as this new, unfinished elm stave bow was, first try. And I used exactly the same arrows.

Actually in this group I had mixed a couple different spine weights, and it didn't seem to make too much difference. The Bear (with me shooting) would put arrows around the bullseye as an average, but not close to each other. Kind of random. But this time they weren't centered, but they really clustered together pretty good -- at least at my starting skill level. And that says to me I'll be shooting better when I tune and compensate than I could have with the other bow.

It wasn't shooting as fast as the Bear, I could tell because the arrow bury in the target wasn't as deep. But I don't really care about that for shooting in the back yard. Having the arrow go where I want is the big thing. I'm just really pleased that I could cut something out of the woods, and have a bow that seems to work better for me than something I bought!

[Knoll]

Put feathers on those arrows and that bow will shoot even better.
Congrats!

[PlanB]

Thanks Knoll! Hoping to make arrows after I have a good bow done.

[Carson (CMB)]

I'm just really pleased that I could cut something out of the woods, and have a bow that seems to work better for me than something I bought!

That is what it is all about!  Nice work.

[PlanB]

Thank you kindly Carson! 

I really like working with elm. Glad I have 3 more staves of the same tree. I'm going to try for higher draw weight next time.

I sanded the bow yesterday, and to get ready to finish it. I did find after sanding and shooting in more, it was a little under weight -- 35 lb. It was 40 after tillering a few days ago. Not much I can do about that, I guess. Next time I'll aim for higher weight before sanding and finishing. Still, I really do like the way it shoots for me, so quite pleased with it.

I toasted the back a little today.

[PlanB]

I found the dried bark I had stripped off of the elm tree, and tied it to the bank of the stream to soak, so I can do a bushboy style elm bark handle wrap.

[Marc St Louis]

Glad to see you got this bow shooting.  I think what you mean to say though is that you toasted the belly of the bow and not the back.  A little bit of heat-treating won't do anything for it though.  If you want to use heat-treating properly then do it before you finish tillering and do it deep

[PlanB]

Thanks Marc, yes belly!!!

I think I did it deep, but not dark -- I took a long time heating it up but kept the gun moving. Maybe 20 minutes for the whole thing. Should it have been darker (move the gun slower, or keep it in a small area?) I will do it before finish tillering next time, (ps. I tried to watch your videos, but couldn't get them to play on my computer)

Thanks!