2022 Bow Trade - complete

[superdav95]

Made some progress on this piece of hickory this morning.  Did the heat treatment early in am and removed it from the form once cooled down about an hour.  Pictured is my little heat treat jig for my heat gun.  It’s getting a little charred from use.  Will let it acclimate and rehydrate a bit before going any further with it.  It held a real nice reflex baked in.  I left the end of the tips a little long so I’ll trim those off later.    Progress!   

Cheers. 

[Kidder]

Superdav95 you’re cracking right along - that’s going to be an awesome bow! Mo_coon-catcher (and everyone else) recipients don’t know who is building for them. Just an fyi but I did have some questions about that.

[superdav95]

Superdav95 you’re cracking right along - that’s going to be an awesome bow! Mo_coon-catcher (and everyone else) recipients don’t know who is building for them. Just an fyi but I did have some questions about that.

Thanks kidder!  It was a particularly nice piece of hickory so I need to do it justice.  So far so good.  At least this way I may have time do another if I have an unexpected failure. 

Cheers

[Jakesnyder]

So i cut this sugar maple down several weeks ago. Im going for an inuit sinew cable backed bow (similar to the one just found not long ago) I think itll do good where it will be going. I know some might be saying "several weeks old" but ive quick dryed sugar maple quite a few times with great success. And none or very little set. But at the end of the day im not going to send out a piece of junk so if im not confident in it i have some seasoned osage id use.

[superdav95]

Jake. That should be a cool looking bow!   I’ve yet to do one of those.  Will be anticipating this build. 

[Kidder]

Got my glue up taken care of this evening. I’ll probably let it sit in the form for a couple days before I take it off. Ive let them sit anywhere from 24 hours to a couple weeks and haven’t noticed any difference in held reflex, which makes sense given that it is entirely a function of glued in reflex. Bamboo backed yellow heart with an ornamental cherry riser and power lam. The cherry was a tree I took down in my yard and had saved for smoking and ended up instead making things from it, such as this or spoons. It has the most amazing smell when worked - like nothing ive ever smelled before. Aside from the fact that I’ve never used yellow heart, my only concern is a tiny belly knot. Almost more of a swirl than a knot, but I’ll do my best to leave it ever so slightly stiff in that spot and keep my fingers crossed.

[Selfbowman]

Nice bow superdave . Looks great.

[Swampman]

I decided to work on a few other options so if one fails I have other options. I just chased a ring on this 70 inch black locust stave.  I will work on roughing it out later today.

[superdav95]

Swamp man.  Looking good so far.  I’d love to get some black locust to make a bow.  We don’t seem to have a lot of it around me here.  Best of luck with your build!   

Cheers

[Mafort]

I’ll upload progress pics when I can. Was in a car wreck on Sunday and pretty banged up.

[superdav95]

I’ll upload progress pics when I can. Was in a car wreck on Sunday and pretty banged up.

That’s sucks man.  Hope you recover soon. 

[superdav95]

Made some more progress on this bow…. Shot it a bunch after tillering it and it shoots sweet.  Very smooth shooter.  I still may do a backing on it.  I’m not 100% sure yet maybe hide back or something.  It’s dimensions are 65 1/2” ttt and 64” ntn and weighs 528.80gr.   Added the overlays which dressed it up a little.  I had some scrap pieces of Buffalo horn and blood wood pieces left over from a knife build last year that I used.  Turned out pretty nice I think.  The handle will be a leather wrap when done with deciding on stain or finish I’m gonna use. The bow held around 4 1/2” reflex after shooting today.  After about 30 mins it creeps back to about 5 1/2” reflex.  I’ll do another shooting session tomorrow when warmer out and see what I’m left with then.  Suspect I’ll end up with about 3-4” of reflex when it settles in to its permanent shape and set.  Not too bad.  The top recurve tips out to the side slightly when braced but is perfectly straight when unstrung.  That’s wood I guess.  Still shoots very well and won’t mess with it.  Even though my ocd wants me to. Without giving too much away at this point that’s all for now.  More to to come.  enjoy the pics.

Cheers

[Kidder]

Dang Superdav95 you are cracking along! That is a beauty too! You definitely win the award for most progress! The rest of us slackers need to take note.

[superdav95]

Dang Superdav95 you are cracking along! That is a beauty too! You definitely win the award for most progress! The rest of us slackers need to take note.

Thanks kidder.   There’s still lots of time. 

[superdav95]

Made this bow to be within a very specific poundage range.  I ended up a pound or two just short of my target draw weight after shooting in.  Bow still shoots very well and holds some reflex.  I added a 4 layer hog gut backing to see if it would push it to my target draw but after all said and done it lost a couple pounds.  Unfortunately this will not do so I’m left with a decision to start another bow and set this one aside to finish up later. My other option is to shorten this bow an inch on each side and see if it’s with in my specs needed.   So close but close only counts in horseshoes.  Oh well it was a fun build either way.  If I shorten it it will loose some of the recurve feature and be more like a flipped tip style.  I may go for it and see.    I’ll post updates soon.