2020 Bow Trade - Sign up closed

[lebhuntfish]

Looking good fellas, I'm fixing to go out and do a little work on my trade bow today.

Not saying it can't be done and not trying to be rude or anything here. But I'm not sure that cutting a green stave and trying to get it dry enough to make a good bow in a few months is a good idea. I know people say that you can dry one out fast if you reduce it down and even use a drying box. But how good is that stave actually going to be? How durable is that bow going to be? We all know that if you force nature it usually does not end well. Like I said, I know it has been done.
The goal here is to make the best bow you can make for the trade. And I'm sure everyone has their own quality and skill level that they use to produce a nice bow.
If this process is something you do on a regular basis and it works well for you that is good. But with a trade like this I personally believe we all need to step up our game and turn out the best quality bow we have made to date.
I'm sure all of us can make a beautiful bow, but remember, that mostly lipstick and makeup. I'm more concerned with quality and durability and if performance is in the mix then that's an added plus.
Let's all keep that in mind and not just make a bow, but "Make A BOW!"

Patrick

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Did a little tiller work on my hickory stick yesterday and got it pulling weight at 15” after it’s heat treat and bending. Next day I work on it I’ll give it one more rasping before I check again and see about bracing it up. It seems like the limbs will end up a little on the thinner side.
I’ll get some pics my next day working on it.

Kyle

[hoosierf]

Looking good fellas, I'm fixing to go out and do a little work on my trade bow today.

Not saying it can't be done and not trying to be rude or anything here. But I'm not sure that cutting a green stave and trying to get it dry enough to make a good bow in a few months is a good idea. I know people say that you can dry one out fast if you reduce it down and even use a drying box. But how good is that stave actually going to be? How durable is that bow going to be? We all know that if you force nature it usually does not end well. Like I said, I know it has been done.
The goal here is to make the best bow you can make for the trade. And I'm sure everyone has their own quality and skill level that they use to produce a nice bow.
If this process is something you do on a regular basis and it works well for you that is good. But with a trade like this I personally believe we all need to step up our game and turn out the best quality bow we have made to date.
I'm sure all of us can make a beautiful bow, but remember, that mostly lipstick and makeup. I'm more concerned with quality and durability and if performance is in the mix then that's an added plus.
Let's all keep that in mind and not just make a bow, but "Make A BOW!"

Patrick

No reason for concern here. Chuck is probably the best juniper bowyer in the world. And that’s just the way it is.

[Flntknp17]

I ended up getting two complete bows out of the beautiful hard maple piece I used for this trade.  Both are bamboo backed maple with padauk risers and perry reflex.  One (that I posted pics of earlier in this thread) is 1.5' wide and pyramid shape.  The other is just an inch wide since it was the leftover piece of maple.  I haven't built a whitewood bow that narrow before, but I decided it was worth the effort to try since the maple was so hard.....and it worked beautifully.  As expected, it didn't maintain as much reflex as the 1.5" wide version, but it still holds zero set just unbraced after 50 shots and comes back to a little reflex after a few minutes.  The wider one shoots harder and would make a better hunting bow, while the narrower one is more elegant and shoots with silence and elegance and would make a better bow for fun or target shooting.  The narrow one turned out well enough that I don't know which to send off now!

Matt

[Flntknp17]

Here is the first outdoor shooting session with the aforementioned narrow version.  I shot it about 200 times over the weekend and that makes me confident that it’ll survive long term. 

[Deerhunter21]

pulled out my hackberry blank. got it to a 3" brace but i still need to practice stringing. its HARD!! but ill get it. took me 3 hrs to make the string. somethings up with my string maker  . its looking very good. my scale for my tillering tree is broken so i need to find out where to find a new one.

[hoosierf]

Ok the sinew on the Osage is curing so back to the yew.

https://imgur.com/a/6clgntN

Back is cleaned up and tips aligned as much as I dare move them. Fortunately like a lot of staves they’re curved in opposite directions so string alignment should simply involve tweaking the handle a bit and it should be pretty good. Also removed that deflex and put matching reflex of about an inch on both tips. It’s 59” and 1 1/2” wide. With a bendy handle I’m hoping to get 27” draw out it. We’ll see. It won’t be a war bow by any means but I’m shooting for 45# maybe slightly less.  I’m no yew expert but I’m sure to learn a lot and hopefully get a nice bow out of it.  So far so good.

[sleek]

I ended up getting two complete bows out of the beautiful hard maple piece I used for this trade.  Both are bamboo backed maple with padauk risers and perry reflex.  One (that I posted pics of earlier in this thread) is 1.5' wide and pyramid shape.  The other is just an inch wide since it was the leftover piece of maple.  I haven't built a whitewood bow that narrow before, but I decided it was worth the effort to try since the maple was so hard.....and it worked beautifully.  As expected, it didn't maintain as much reflex as the 1.5" wide version, but it still holds zero set just unbraced after 50 shots and comes back to a little reflex after a few minutes.  The wider one shoots harder and would make a better hunting bow, while the narrower one is more elegant and shoots with silence and elegance and would make a better bow for fun or target shooting.  The narrow one turned out well enough that I don't know which to send off now!

Matt

I'd take either, but if I had my druthers, I'd take the best shooter over the higher draw weight. I prefer a sweet shooter that I can enjoy than a hunting weight bow that is less fun.

[Deerhunter21]

hackberrys not an option anymore. got yew billets out now. probably wont make a takedown but ill splice it and OH MY GOSH IT IS SO EASY TO CHASE A RING!!

[lebhuntfish]

No reason for concern here. Chuck is probably the best juniper bowyer in the world. And that’s just the way it is.

I truly meant that as an overall statement. I know it kinda sounded like it was directed at an individual but truly wasn't meant to be.
When I started making bows and posting them on PA I was pretty dang green myself. I tried to pay attention to what people told me on here. I learned who was a seasoned Bowyer and who liked to talk about bows. I found out pretty quickly, the hard way, whoever was telling me how to do things I needed to read several replies and use common sense to weed out the statements that were not a good way to do something.
Before I started making bows all I knew about wood was how to make custom furniture and other wood products and how to cut and "season" fire wood.
I found out in a hurry that cut and "dry" wood wasn't anywhere near the same as seasoned/cured wood.
And trying to quickly dry out a stave for a bow was taboo.
I have learned myself over the years that after cutting a stave and preparing it for drying, I like it to be at least 2 years old before I do anything to it as far as "bow" work. And I like to reduce it to a nice size bow blank and leave it in the house for a week or two before proceeding on any bending work. I also make sure my inprogress staves are inside in a conditiond space while they are in the process of being made into a bow.

Like I said, I know it can be done, but....

Chuck, I hope you were not offended by my comment.
I just know how easy it is to send a newby down the wrong path.

Patrick

[sleek]

Whelp, I may be looking at plan B. I got a check at the tip that runs through the belly to the back. It will still make a bow, but I'm uncertain about shipping it.

[sleek]

I'm still going to make it into a bow, just may not be shipping this one. Darn shame.

[M2A]

Nice work there Matt!

Hate when that happends Sleek.

Nice to see so many projects coming along.

My piece of sugar maple is coming along very nice. Unfortunately, I needed to deal with a medical issue thats been looming over me for the last several months. Everything is well but it left me with an untold number of stitches in my neck. I am going to play it safe until I can take them out. Sure would hate to ruin the docs handywork. So I will be doing everything I can to get ready to tiller my bow to f/d in 2 weeks. I hope, starting tonight,  to give it a real good heat treat and make a slight adjustment to the string alignment to make good use of my down time. I also still have that locust piece to finish floor tillering and hope to put some heat to it to straighten it out some.
Mike     

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I’ve pulled my hickory stave to 16” on the long string just off the belly. So I took it to a low 4” brace to get an idea of where the string lines up so I could narrow down the tips and get the overlays glued on. I decided to go with persimmon tips this time. I’m hoping it’ll look good when all finished up. The tips were narrowed to 1/2” before I glued the overlay material on.

Kyle

[hoosierf]

Covid has been a boon for the bow trade.  Nice work fellas.  Here’s an update on the yew.

I’m not quite sure what to do with that one tip. I’ve gotta do some more heat correction.  It shoots nice and has not really taken much set. 


https://imgur.com/a/lQcbqrB

The full draw pic was before I made more adjustments so ignore the stiff spots. They’re gone except for a small area near a knot.