Saturday 29 August 2015

Elm Warbow progress etc

The Warbow is now at about 100# at 28" from a 5" brace which should give about 120# at 32". It's bending much smoother now and is ready for the horn nocks and more slimming down of the tips.
I'll crack on with that this afternoon.

I'd promised someone I'd look through my seasoned staves to see if I had a suitable one. The pic gives you some idea why I need to splice up bows from billets, out of all these staves there is 1 good one (just below the tape, which is opened up to 6', so you see they are not very long), three others that are maybe ok and the rest need some serious straightening or reducing into billets.
Even the good one is a bit thin in the middle and the sapwood has been gouged with a chainsaw when it was cut. You can see them separated into piles, ok and poor.
I trimmed a few of 'em and will start work on one in a week or so when the Warbow is done.







I forgot to mention what I was doing during the 2 hours of heat treating.
Ages ago I strapped a short length of yew (62.5") to some 2x2 in a slight deflex deflex shape.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/where-do-you-start.html
I set to with an axe trimming it down in the 4 minutes between moving the heatgun along the limb by another few inches.

I'd been inspired to look at the short piece of Yew by seeing some original authentic Native American bows at the Avalon shoot. One of the guys there Andrew Hall is a bowyer (he's one of the few who makes horn sinew composites)  and avid collector of native bows etc. He'd brought them along to show someone, and I had to stick my nose in and have a look too.

Update:-
5:30pm. I've got the horn nocks on, found a string with smaller loops* so they sit better on the nocks, adjusted it to about 5" brace and drawn it to 100# at 28"
I need to video it to really see what needs doing. I think the outers need easing off some more, but I've done enough for the day. I can certainly feel the grip moving as I draw it a little by hand, which also suggests the outers need to work more

* My long tillering string has huge loops so they can over roughed out staves.

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