Sunday 14 October 2012

Maple Finished & Hazel Bark On Bow


The Maple has had about 150 arrows through it now, the arrow plate is done and I shot it at the club, I wasn't shooting as well as I'd hoped, the 100 odd arrows at 10 paces had left me rather zoned in on that range.
The bow was fine it just took me a while to settle into field shooting.
Distance wise it got past the 180 yards uphill into a breeze, I only shot 3, and one was within a pace of the clout peg!
A couple of the club guys shot it and felt it shot flat and sweet, Tom (our irritatingly good shot, who can't miss even with a bow he's never seen before) took a pic of me at full draw. I'm really happy with the tiller, it always looks a tad different when it's actually being shot (you can see the twist in the upper limb, which makes it appear fat).
I took some pics showing the string alignment despite the apparent asymmetry of the bow (note the plumb bob hanging to the right to give a reference).
The bark on Hazel I'd been working on is coming along nicely now. I gave the bark a good slather of beeswax polish and some linseed oil in the hope that it will keep it supple, it buffed up like burnished copper, but is rather camouflaged if you put it down!
The pics of the Hazel show the overall shape (sort of 'paddle bow' shape) and some of the twist and features.
It's back to about 20" at 40# (target weight/draw is 40# at 28") it's at a low brace height and I'm working on getting a nice even tiller despite the twists and knots.
I have high hopes for it as it's a reasonable length for a 40# bow and has plenty of width. The style of nocks and such detail hasn't been decided yet, but that can wait until its back to 28" (fingers crossed, not counting chickens and assorted exhortations to the deities of bow making)

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