Thursday 26 February 2015

Major Clear Out and Log Prep'

My mate Mick the Blacksmith came up with a haul of Yew from a tree surgeon he knows.
It's been lying on the garage floor and with that and the other stuff I can hardly move...
Time for a clear out. I took all my old golf kit, put it into storage and had a good tidy and sweep.
Then I tackled the Yew logs, I'd already split one short fat one into two nice 4'6" lengths (they are the two on the top).
Some of the others were a tad thin to try and get two staves so ran 'em through the bandsaw taking about 1/3 off the width, cutting away the 'bad' side. Some of the off cuts are clean enough to become Yew sapwood backings. The ends have all been painted with PVA ready to get up on my shelves tomorrow.
Having had a good clean up I'll be able to have a nice clear run at finishing the two bamboo backed bows I'm working on.

The flight bow is drawing about 35# at 23". I'll be easing off the tips and narrowing them, trying to get it back to 24" or maybe 26". I have shot it and it feels fairly quick with my 'standard' arrow. I videoed it, grabbed two stills and combined them so I can see how the limbs move from braced to full draw. It looks like the right (upper limb) needs to work a little more.

The 50# bow will have a good clean up, then I'll start shooting it for about 75 arrows and then I'll look at the weight. (I'm chickening out of putting it on the tiller until it's shot in)I've been discussing (moaning) with my brother who asked about the patch and what the draw weight is. He laughed when I said "I dunno, it is what it is. Nothing I can do about it now!" I'm expecting about 48# but as I explained to him, with most bows you are looking at about plus or minus 5# on the stated draw weight and I've seen plenty that have been plus or minus 10#.


Worst was one bloke showing off his 100# bow at the club, one of us old guys drew it with ease, I then had a go and told him it wasn't even 90#... he later measured it at 80# !

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