Bits and Pieces

I've been finishing off the 80 pounder which I'd been working on back in early may. The guy is going to collect it later this month. I advised he have an arrow plate if he's going to shoot heavy arrows with whipped fletchings as the whipping rips the wood. I did a fairly substantial but discreet one in pale horn, the bow has had a few coats of danish oil on it and is looking very handsome. You can see the splice showing in the pic, it's the heaviest spliced bow I've made, but it has plenty of meat at the grip to give it a good warbow look.

I had a guy send me some Yew logs up from Wales, they look pretty good, I hope to cut them into staves at the weekend so I can have a better look at the wood. I'll be making him a bow.
Another chap E-mailed me with an odd tale of the string popping a bow I made back in 2012. He dropped the bow in for me to have a look at. The problem was mostly the string loops having opened up, but the nocks were a rather odd shape which didn't help. I reshaped the nocks and re-did the serving on the Y of the loops. That should keep it in order for another few years.

I've also been tinkering about some more with the flight arrows, I got some bits of parchment from a friend and was wondering how to fit parchment flights. A slot cut in the shaft should help so I dug out a little mini drill that had belonged to my Father in law (it will run off a 12v battery) I bought some little cutting disks of the internet and by mounting 2 on the mandrel it should cut a nice slot. To cut it nice and straight I made a holder to mount on the lathe from an old hose clip and a scrap of wood. Here we are, slot cut to a nicety.
Dunno how I'll test this arrow, but maybe I'll shoot it from a lower power bow, (80# @32" ) and compare it with one of my other flight arrows. There are a couple of places where it will be quiet first thing in the morning and a quick two arrow test shouldn't be noticed by the local constabulary. The long par 5 on the local golf course is nice and straight (just kidding!).