Hi, folks!
I would like to present you my third finished bow. I named it ‚Bridled Dragons’ - for obvious reasons...
I’m aware that this is not the preferred type of bow in this forum, since it is quite unsuitable for bow hunting - it would most probably snag every branch even remotely in reach and is certainly not built for high performance.
But hopefully some variety is appreciated here as well, so I‘ll show it anyway...
It‘s a Penobscot-like design and is made from Black Locust (heartwood only) with Siyahs and dragon head nocks (not ‘knocks’
) from a naturally crooked yew branch. The color is the result of 4 days in ammonia fumes and shifts from dark brown to bronze, depending on the light conditions.
Some details:
- 65# @ 28“
- 69“ NTN (measured over the necks)
- ca. 1“ set
- horn inlays in all four dragon maws to direct the string tension deep into the carved heads
- horn arrow plate
- bullfrog leather grip
- string and cables 12-string Dacron B55 double Flemish twist with reenforced loops
- finish: 2 layers shellac, several layers linseed oil.
The bow was made from leftovers of a failed project for a sapling bow competition at a German forum (Fletcher’s Corner). In this competition we had 6 weeks to fell a small tree with a max. diameter of 4“ and build a bow with 30# of draw minimum. The reason, that it has Siyahs at all is that one of the tips of the main bow snapped off after an overly aggressive attempt to bend small diameter recurves with dry heat. The bow dropped out of the competition, but I decided to save as much as possible. So I cut off the other tip and spliced in Siyahs.
Due to the rather heavy weight of those Siyahs (around 490 grains per piece) and the compression of mainly the inner limbs typical for the Penobscot design, I chose a tiller somewhere between elliptical and whip tiller.
The bow draws and shoots very comfortably with almost no handshock and is surprisingly silent. The average speed of 10 gpp wooden arrows was between 155 and 160 fps. So - not as bad as I thought it would be...
There‘s no observable compound-like effect with this kind of Penobscot design. The force/draw curve is fairly linear (see below).
But enough bla bla - on to the pictures!
I hope you enjoy them and I‘m always grateful for constructive criticism!
Torsten
