Walnut self bow with violations

[bassman]

Still shooting after 2 years of hard use. 42 lbs at 25 inches, and 55 inches long.Given to me by a friend who removed the bark with an ax.It shoots a 425 gr arrow at 143 fps.Here are some pics.

[bassman]

Pics.

[bassman]

More pics

[Pat B]

I'd say you were lucky although many Native bows had back violations just not the way I'd do it.   

[George Tsoukalas]

My goodness! Jawge

[bassman]

Pat ,and Jawge, I wouldn't have tried this with any other bow wood that I have ever used to make  a bow.. I find that Walnut will keep taking set before the back breaks. Most walnut saplings will give you a very thick growth ring for the bow's  back. It also has to be thoroughly belly heat treated to keep set to a minimum threw the whole building ordeal. This bow is 2 wide at the fades to half inch at the tips with 1 inch of finished set.I have built them with horrible set, but never had the back break on any I have ever built. I have 3 arrows in the target. That is a 3 shot group at 15 yds. 2 arrows are fletched, and 1 is a bare shaft. Draws smooth, and shoots nice.

[kbear]

Wow.... that's nuts!

[bassman]

kbear, if you think that is nuts their is a guy that shows a 55 lb. hickory bow that took excessive set ,so he strung the bow the other way and is still shooting it on leather wall. Check it out.

[Hamish]

Looks like one of my friends first selfbow, made from pecan. It still works fine too.  Still, just dumb luck, rather than by design. You are always safer with a pristine back( or at least properly decrowned), nowhere for the gremlins to latch onto and cause you problems.

[Pappy]

Walnut sap wood is pretty tough as you can see. if it had been heart wood you most likely wouldn't have been so lucky.
 Pappy

[bassman]

Pappy, I only went by my past experience with Walnut sapling bows, and the nature of the wood, and how it would bend, take set, and the strength of the back. I had a hunch I could get a bow from that sapling.It wasn,t just all luck. As I have stated above I would never try this with any other wood I have made bows from.Hamish ,not all dumb luck.

[dylanholderman]

I was just at a big re-enactment event talking to another bowyer and he was praising black walnut quite a bit, said that it had properties similar to yew but it takes more set.

[bassman]

Dylon, their is a lot of Walnut were I live ,and free for the taking,so I have built quite a few sapling bows out of it. Some bad ones with a lot of set.Some pretty decent one,s with little set, and very few with no set, or reflex. For what it is it does decent for a bow wood ,but takes more work than other woods. Belly heat treating this wood is time consuming.

[Hamish]

Bassman, its dumb luck in the sense it worked through no good skill or decision of the bowyer. Certain woods like walnut or hickory seem to survive poor treatment better than others. It would be an interesting experiment to see how much you could get away with on purpose, with one of these backs before they blow.


It still boggles my mind when I see a bow like this survive, especially after a long proving period.

I have done plenty of dumb things with my bowyering, unfortunately I never seem to get the luck to go along with the dumb:)

[bassman]

I have broken more than my share of self bows over the years when the backs let go including Hickory, and White Oak, Black Locust,Elm, Horn beam, and  Osage for one reason or another, but have never broken the back of a  Walnut bow. Has to be wide to minimize set.Also has to be belly heat treated multiple times if made this short. The wood has to be knot free which this one is. The growth ring for the back will be  very thick. It is a low mass wood, and  soft , so it will ding easily. I took this all in to account  by design when I built the bow. Good shooting, and hunting.