The story of this bow started years before I even started making selfbows. I cut this small diameter Osage tree at my neighbor’s backyard because he needed some help and I could keep the wood. The tree was full of small brunches and was not straight at all. Back then, I didn’t know anything about bow making, so I had no idea what to do with the wood, yet I have this tiny piece of thought in my mind that maybe someday in the future I could use it for something. One or two years later as I shared before, I started making bows and got addicted with it. But even in my early bow making days when I look at this piece of wood, I felt it was impossible to turn this gnarly wood into a bow. With my bow making skills getting better I have better understandings of what can be turned into a bow. I didn’t have a good design for this wood until I saw Weylin’s yew hollow limb bow. It was really mind blowing and I was like woooooow!! It opened a new world for me. I never knew that bow making can be done this way. Then I spent hours and days looking at the wood and thinking about designs and how to layout the bow. But still, I didn’t have enough courage to start the project because I know it would be a ton of scraping and not sure if it would work after all the hard work. So, I left it in my garage and worked on other staves.
Recently I have a lot of time staying at home, so I asked myself why not give it a try? If the hollow limb design doesn’t work, it’s ok too, it’s just part of the bow making journey. How would I learn without some failures? The natural gull wing style, all the knot holes, the high crown and hollow limb design makes it a challenge to tiller. But the end result worked out well. The hard work is worth it! As I imagined, it was indeed a lot of work, but this valuable experience convinced me to make more of this design in the future because it’s so satisfying looking at the finished product.
Personally, I’m not a big fun of a cut in shelf, but this guy in the picture only knows how to shoot a bow this way, haha. The glued on African black wood handle gives it a decent look which I really like.
62 inches NTN
#40@28
14strands D97
Enjoy the bow!
1 by
Ye Li, on Flickr
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