Author Topic: Hello from Finland!  (Read 6097 times)

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Offline maatus

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Hello from Finland!
« on: January 25, 2016, 09:58:43 am »
Hello all! I'm 23 years old and I live in Finland. My family is from Lapland but I do live in southern part of Finland.

I've been making bows for one year now, mostly selfbows, from rowan and hazel woods.

This is my last made bow, my first laminated one, and I wanted to try out birch-juniper combination. Siyahs are made from pine deadwood, also known as "kelo" in Finnish. It's the first "known" birch-juniper bow in Finland!

Now I'm planning to make a sinew backed compression pine/juniper/spruce bow, depends on what I could find in the woods. Maybe I could use birch on back and then cover it with sinew, let's see what happens.. If any of you readers have some spare sinew, send me PM! Sadly I do not have anything to trade except money. Anyway I will open a new topic under the Trading Post.

Greetings,

Markus
« Last Edit: January 25, 2016, 02:12:43 pm by Markus O. »

Offline Pat B

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2016, 04:11:01 pm »
Welcome to PA Markus.   I'm going to move this post to "BOWS" so everyone can see your beautiful bow.
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline loon

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2016, 04:30:15 pm »
Niice

Maybe you could trade staves for sinew?.. that you could get from the woods? Or arrows?

Would like to see a sinew backed compression softwood bow

Offline willie

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2016, 04:38:15 pm »
Marcus-
welcome, and any more info (specs) about your verrrrry nice bow would be appreciated

can you tell us a little more about kelo?

Offline Steve Milbocker

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2016, 05:34:44 pm »
Welcome Marcus, nice bow!
I'm no where near as smart as my phone!

Offline Red Tailed Hawk

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2016, 06:54:04 pm »
Very nice!!

Offline Hrothgar

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2016, 07:59:10 pm »
Good looking bow, has a lot of personality!
" To be, or not to be"...decisions, decisions, decisions.

Offline DuBois

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2016, 08:17:54 pm »
Very nice and Welcome! How about a close up of the siyah/tips?

Offline PlanB

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2016, 08:23:32 pm »
Great bow, and I'm very interested in the birch/compression conifer bows. I've been using birch for bows, and have been thinking of trying eastern hemlock compression wood bellies with black birch backing.

I've been doing a lot of reading about Finnish bows lately!.
I love it when a plan B comes together....

Offline ---GUTSHOT--->

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2016, 08:33:21 pm »
Welcome and very nice bow

Offline Badly Bent

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2016, 08:36:10 pm »
I'm liking your bow, has a sweet looking style to it and excellent tiller. Welcome to the forum Markus and keep posting your work.
I ain't broke but I'm badly bent.

Offline mullet

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2016, 09:40:26 pm »
Welcome to PA, Marcus. That's a nice, simple bow with a lot of character.
Lakeland, Florida
 If you have to pull the trigger, is it really archery?

Offline Drewster

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2016, 10:46:42 pm »
Cool bow.  Looks like you're doing some nice work after only one year's experience.  Welcome to PA Marcus.  Looking forward to seeing more of your bows.
Drew - Boone, NC

Offline dragonman

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #13 on: January 26, 2016, 05:02:20 am »
very nice looking bow, I like how you are working with your native materials , to get the best out of them instead of using imported wood. like your ancestors would have done.....the tiller looks great too , what kind of poundage  and length is the bow?....and welcome, looks like your bows will fit in well on the PA

Dave  (wales UK )
'expansion and compression'.. the secret of life is to balance these two opposing forces.......

Offline maatus

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Re: Hello from Finland!
« Reply #14 on: January 26, 2016, 10:04:13 am »
I totally forgot the specs... So here it comes:

Lenght 133cm (I like more shortbows than longer ones..), width 38mm, thickness about 20mm, weight 430g. It pulls 51# @ 22", could draw at least an inch longer so I guess it's somewhere around 55-58 at full draw. It's pretty new bow, finished it just few days ago and yet I haven't had time to build arrows for it. I only have arrows for 22" draw lenght, for my shorter bows.

Quote
can you tell us a little more about kelo?

It's up dried old dead tree (mostly pine) which has dropped it's bark. In Lapland, the tree stops growing when it's around 400 years old and then it takes few decades to turn kelo. The process won't happen in southern part because it could not get dry and will rot. Sapwood of it (if can use that word) is grey coloured and heartwood is reddish-brownish.

On that picture, there is some kelo's heartwood at the end of the tip (reddish-brownish color)