Primitive Archer

Hi all!
I finished a black locust bow last days.
It comes from a pair of branches of black locust given to me by a local gardener. It has a very nice color this particular black locust wood, with some nice "black" areas. As they cut it just to arrange the tree they were short in length, so I had to splice them on the handle with a Z splice and to add a bit of wood on the belly side of the handle.
I didnīt want to touch the profile of the resulting stave, so it had (and has) a lot more reflex on the lower limb than in the upper one. It makes tiller a bit weird visually talking, but it feels good to me on the hand and acceptable for what I see. A total amount of about 1"1/2 initial reflex.
I wanted to try a pistol-kind handle and I decided to do it on this bow. Pretty comfortable too on the hand.
66" ntn and 44# at 26"
20#@14"   24#@16"  27.5#@18"   31.5#@20"   36#22"   40#@24"   44#@26"
I wanted to show the splice and the color on the handle area so I didn't put leather on it, I just put some leather thread crossing on the handle area. Burned arrowpass mark.
Oil based finish and a bit of wax mixed with oils on the last coat.
Linen string.
Thanks for watching!
















 

    The wood grain in that handle is gorgeous, I see why you didn't cover it...Nice looking bow...
                                                                                                                                            Don

Thank you very much, mates!!
Yes, the color on this black locust is very dark-brown, with a bit of honey color on it, and it has areas a lot darker, almost black, specially near the handle and tips.
Time ago I cut a black locust that was almost "black" (I thought that this was the reason to call it black locust, but I'm not sure, cause most of them are more yellow or camouflage greenish than this specimens. But usually those dark ones are denser...)
Hugs from Spain!

Beautiful work!

Thanks, friends!
Razorsharp to kill: I have only done one osage bow, and I have another stave prepared... I live in Spain and here we don't find it easily. I work a lot with black locust on the other hand... I felt osage bending easier than black locust...Locust usually needs even thinner limbs than the osage that I worked. but listen to others that have more experience with both bows what they have to say!

Thanks, wistlingbadger!
yes, I totally agree with you in black locust performance. If you find a dense enough log, and there are black locust trees really dense it's a very good shooter!! (In my experience the darker the denser).

Hi again and thanks, Wistlingbadger.
Those are bi-color goose feathers. I did primitive glue applied hot and put the feathers then, and it had a long time for correcting and wrapping them with a very thin hemp thread . Glue was done with 1/3 pine pitch, 1/3 wax and 1/3 ash. The shaft is a plum shoot.
Cheers,
David

I like the handle a lot, but in my opinion, the unbraced picture does not justify the extreme unbalance of your tiller.  I see hinges and stiff spots on the top limb, and the last 2/3rds of the bottom limb look very stiff.  I wonder if you have lots of hand shock when you shoot this?  If not, and it shoots smooth and straight, and it holds up over time, then it doesn't matter what I think, and you should enjoy it.  It is beautiful wood.