Last summer at Mo Jam my curiousity got the best of me when I brought home a bark on stave that was supposed to be from Kansas and harvested back in the middle 1990's.After chasing a ring and then floor tillering it to around 50#'s I left it set on the rack in the house.A month later I balanced the limbs and induced some reflex on my half form caul.I put it back on the rack for quite some time then till a couple of weeks ago.I thought I had reflexed the limbs to 5" retaining 80%.I just did another bow at 68" length with hooks on the same form that say it's 6.25".What happened I think is that I know this half form gives me 5" of reflex on a 64" bow.I did some assumimng and did'nt realize is that I heat curved the extended lengthed tips also more to give it a longer arched line.After tillering it to 50#'s it did retain well over 50% then yet that's including the tips of course.An honest mistake and I apologize.Too much time had elapsed from it coming off the caul to tillering it[like a couple of months] and I was mistaken.I've found a half form caul can give me options of positioning a full length form caul does'nt.
Limbs are rectangular shaped with a very flat flawless back and flat belly.After multiple sessions of 3 to 4 hour shootings adding up to a little over 300 arrows it has held up very well keeping it's profile.Shows only 1/2" what I call soft set after shooting then returning it's original resting profile within 2 hours.Very resilient wood yet.
The bow is 50#'s @ 28".66" TTT and 64.5" NTN.8" long handle with 10" to 11" stiff narrow outer tips.
1 and 3/8" wide @ fades.1 and 5/16" wide @ midlimb.Resting reflex @ 4".
Shoots smooth clean and quiet and a fun bow to shoot.Thanks for looking.Enjoy.
After tillering/shooting in resting on an old hedge post
Pointing to a bunch of young nut bearing oaks for the deer
Top view profile.
Handle alignment of string.Ala natural.Has it shooting a variety of spined arrows dead on not grouped very tightly elevation wise....lol but does windage wise even at 40 yards.
Brace.A slight deflex out of the top limb fade makes it look a shade more positive tiller than it actually is.6.75" BH to the back.
Full draw.
Close up pics of handle with my usual inlayed slightly raised [1/32"] horn dot arrow pass and modified type pin nock tips with sheep horn overlays.
Bulbous type handle.
Bottom tip
Top tip.
I happened to get reminisent of my first osage self bow and wanted to show the difference side by side.You can see the photo senstivity of light on osage here over the years.It too is 66" long and 50#'s @ 28".Back then in the spring of 2009 I was so scared of hinging at the fades that I tillered the bow more or less whip tillered.You can see where the bow took set.Actually making the bow a short limb working bow on a long bow taking away it's advantage of longer limbs for a more comfortable smooth draw with a steeper string angle,but I was happy and tickled pink at the time to fling some arrows with it.
It seems I have gotten over the fear of hinging at the fades for quite some time now to the extent of coming real close to having the bow almost too round in the handle.It could have been a little more eliptical of a tiller with a longer handle.This paticular bow has 0 hand shock at least with 9 to 10 grain arrows yet.Handles are a big deal in how a bow feels shooting.
The difference in performance on these 2 bows is close to 30 fps @ 28".With the comfort level at full draw a lot more comfortable with the latest bow.Not many pictures took of the first bow because I did'nt join this PA forum till 2011 and then realizing the need by others for photo shots of bows.I built bows pretty much on my own except for using the TBB series books as guidance till then mostly.Still do actually but rarely any more.The insight on this site is invaluable.
Bow on the left looks like it has an 18" long handle @ brace.
