Monday 20 February 2017

Missing Cat Syndrome

Emily cat has wandered off, it's over 48 hours now... we've even had a little ginger cat who is her friend looking for her in our garden. We've posted on Facebook and put leaflets through the doors in the neighbourhood. The woman next door came round she has cats too and said she'd previously seen Emily in their garden and going over in a dirction which we'd not been aware of. She's an adveterous soul and very much a free spirit. maybe she's got a whiff of spring and feels the need to raom free (even tho' she's been spayed). We wouldn't mind her roaming as long as she's ok... hopefully she'll come back in her own time.

Anyhow, what do I do when I need distracting from cat worries?
Yup, make a bow! I have another pair of glued up rather wonky billets, so I'm trying to make a heavy weight short draw flight longbow for the ILAA rove at the weekend. I'm aiming for about 70# at 24" I hope to maybe give the warbow boys a fright in the flight shhot at the end of the rove!
I've also done a double belly patch on JT's 120# warbow, it had a long but relatively shallow chrysal/pinch across the belly that was in danger of getting worse. Warbows have a short enough life and take a lot of strain, so some preventative maintenance may hopefully prevent a blow up.
The chrysal raises the question of should one leave thickened areas around knots etc... the danger is you simply create a weak point between the thick points and get a chrysal or pinch there. I think the real answer is to be very subtle and sympathetic to the wood, great raised bulges are in my opinion a nonsense, unless done as "character" features. On the 120# bow I could feel a very slight dip where the crysal is, because a tiny bit extra had been left for a knot on one side just beyond the crysal, and the other side of it, a little extra left to accomodate an undulation. As is often the case, hindsight is 20/20 and one could easilly say "Ah, it was bound to chrysal there"... but conversely, if it hadn't chrysalled, it would have been a brave man to call it a "weak point" as it was very subtle.
Been making some brass flight arrow points too.

In case anyone is wondering I did two thinner patches rather than one deep thick one, this is because a thinner patch will flex and conform to the rasped out scoop giving a good fit.

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