Del's Wonky Hazel

[Del the cat]

Now ages ago I made a real fast Boo backed Yew for a guy who backed out on the deal... that's no problem if only he'd told me... he just went silent which was ill mannered.
Any way, this lady was interested in the bow so I let her try it and she made me an offer which was perfectly fine. We became friends and she's a lovely enthusiastic lady into all types of archery, target, field, clout and is pretty good too. I'd noticed on FaceBook she was posting links about some obscure medical condition which she has http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx.
She's a health care professional and just a nice person
BUT... she was buying modern fancy recurves in awful shades of PINK! And generally becoming a bow addict .
I told that she seriously needed a real bow and that I'd make her a Hazel primitive... it would be a bit of a cheek to charge her for it as she hadn't asked me to make her a bow. Soooo I though, let her pay what she thinks it's worth and then donate the money to the charity that supports her condition
I put this proposal to her, she agreed, so I set off and sawed some Hazel that very day (9th of June)! http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/pleasantly-tired-this-morning.html
You see it's been pretty rapidly seasoned, anyhow, enough chat, I hope you like the back story. I'll take it to her next time I'm down South.
Del
Whoops almost forgot the details.
43# at 28" 67 1/4" ttt. Limb width 2" at widest. Full story on the blog of course.
One point of interest was how it was so close to centre shot the arrows were waggling like crazy! I had to do a slight steam bend at the grip to bring the arrow pass about 3/16" to the left (as seen by the archer), that smoothed it out. usually the problem is the opposite and the arrow pass needs relieving.The problem was basically caused by shape of the stave.

[Pappy]

I like it Del, and love the story and fine jester. Bet she will love that.
 Pappy

[FilipT]

You left the bark on, couldn't it fall off while the limbs are moving?

[ajooter]

Nice stick del...got some great wiggle to it.

And speaking of wonky...how bout those pants!

[Del the cat]

You left the bark on, couldn't it fall off while the limbs are moving?

I've made a few like this and sometimes the bark will start cracking, but generally it stays.
I try to encourage it to stay on by lightly wire brushing along the limb and giving it plenty of wax, the theory being that it will help the wax to penetrate.
If the bark falls off the sky will not fall dawn 
the down side of a "bark on" bow is that, if you put it down in the woods... you may never find it again
Del

[Del the cat]

Nice stick del...got some great wiggle to it.

And speaking of wonky...how bout those pants!

yeah... without those... I'd disappear into the background
Del

[osage outlaw]

Nice looking bow Del.  Good job helping out her charity.

[half eye]

Well Mr. Cat.....that sir is a typical Dell bend, just perfect and beautiful. Ya know I have a soft spot for those primitive girls anyway.
rich

[FilipT]

Del, that is "pyramid bow" am I right? How wide it is at fades and how thick hazel bow needs to be at minimum to produce bow of around 50# at 28"? I read that bow pictured is 45# at 28".
I am asking because I want to build couple of flatbows and pyramid bows from hazel (very common tree here) but as they are softer type of wood, I don't know what "minimum" rough dimensions should I use so I don't have at the end of tillering under weight bow.

[JonW]

I really like that one Del.

[Del the cat]

@ Stalker,
Hi, it's not really a pyramid as there is a good bit of thickness taper. I think a true pyramid is constant thickness and just a width taper.
It's more a Neoloithic leaf/spear shaped limb... (I'm sure there's a fancy name for it). The tips are slim and a bit thicker
Here are some dimensions (upper limb, which is less wonky)... sorry but I'm using mm for width and thickness as it's more convenient starting on the fade where it's pretty thick.
Distance from fade, width,thickness. (rounded to 1 decimal place)
0", 48.5mm, 24.5mm
1", 51.3mm, 20.4mm
2", 51.7mm, 19.3mm
That's the fade, now every 6" from there
8", 48.3mm, 17.3mm
14", 44.9mm,15.7mm
20", 38.0mm,13.0mm
26", 22.6mm,12.7mm

When I was tillering it, I'd got to about 23", I'm sure it would have pulled 50# if I'd wanted.
Those dimensions include the bark of course which must be about 1mm, so without the bark, thos dimensions probably would give 50#, or simply heat treating the belly would bring her up there. I was actually struggling to get the weight down! I had the tiller right at about 24" and had to be careful not to screw it up.
The thickness taper was roughed out to about 1.5mm every 6" and then all done by eye and feel.
Hope that makes sense.

Del

[Aaron H]

I give this a thumbs up all around, well done del

[Blayne]

Very nice one there Del. She will be very happy with it, and it will look so much better in her hand than those pink glass one!

[wizardgoat]

Very cool bow Del. I am surrounded by Hazel in my backyard, it's my shade canopy for summer bow building. I've yet to build a bow from the wood, but I've roughed out a few.
very interesting, cut in June and the bark stayed on

[SLIMBOB]

Cool looking bow and a great gesture!