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Author
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Topic: Shooting a new recurve...
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 15, 2014 07:16 AM
So, I'm sitting here, pondering the above advice. And thinking about the vaunted security getting into Canada. No problem for Dave, he's squeaky clean, but guys like Bill Martz were turned around and refused entry because of a conviction for something or other?
And then, because it's current and topical consider the situation on our southern border! Total clusterfuck by President Dickweed!
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31460 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Lonny
PANTS ON THE GROUND
Member # 19
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posted July 15, 2014 04:58 PM
Cool story knockem'
The wife and I made a road trip to Banff about 18 years ago. Beautiful place. I wish we had done more than just driving and had spent more time in the area. Even still, the scenery was impressive.
Back then it was easy to cross the border. Now not so much. My BIL got turned away at the border a couple years back because he had DUI over 20 years ago!
Posts: 1209 | From: Lewiston, Idaho USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Lonny
PANTS ON THE GROUND
Member # 19
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posted July 15, 2014 05:03 PM
Oh by the way good shooting Lonehowl.
I just sold my compound bow last fall, so I'm out of the archery business for now. The simplicity of a recurve or long bow is appealing.
Anybody ever made a bow? I found a stand of yew where I deer hunt and was thinking about trying cutting a stave, curing it, and maybe make something that could fling an arrow. I'm sure there would be lots of trial and error, but the thought of making a bow would be kinda neat.
Posts: 1209 | From: Lewiston, Idaho USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Duckdog
Knows what it's all about
Member # 3842
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posted July 15, 2014 06:35 PM
I made this one and a few kids bows.
It's patterned after a Cherokee flat bow, but just a little oversized.
I bought that stave preseasoned and it was supposed to be "select", which meant straight with very few knots.
It showed up bowed side to side really bad with a really bad knot coming out of the side of it.
I guess I looked at it as a challenge. I steamed it back straight, and did a linen wrap on the knot area and it's still fully functional almost 20 years later! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
This buck isn't much to jump up and down about, but I shot it with all homemade equipment, (excluding the broadhead), and that was my goal, so I was pretty proud of it.
Besides, 20 years ago there wasn't a deer behind every tree either! ![[Wink]](wink.gif)
Posts: 205 | From: Ks | Registered: Jun 2011
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 15, 2014 06:42 PM
I'm impressed, duck dog!
Good hunting. El Bee
PS I won the Archery Gold Medal at Club Med a few years ago, had not picked up a bow of any kind in at least 25 years. Or since.
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31460 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Lonny
PANTS ON THE GROUND
Member # 19
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posted July 15, 2014 07:39 PM
Way cool Duck!
Seriously, that is quite a feat all the way around.
Thanks for sharing.
Posts: 1209 | From: Lewiston, Idaho USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Duckdog
Knows what it's all about
Member # 3842
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posted July 15, 2014 08:09 PM
Thanks LB!
I haven't bow hunted for quite a while now, but I still string 'em up and fling a few from time to time. There just isn't enough time during the fall season to do everything I wanna do.
The biggest trick to making a bow is following the grain and I never found a power tool that helps with that without fear of turning it into firewood. So, you wind up spending a lot of time with a draw knife.
The back (away from you) has to be all of the same grain ring because that's what keeps it from splitting or breaking. So you look at the end of the stave and find the ring you want to try then start draw kniving down to it.
With Osage orange, the rings are 2 different colors. The lighter colored rings represent the first spring growth and are considered weaker. The darker rings are after the tree has leaved and grew slow and steady throughout the summer. Those are the rings you want.
So, like I said, you try to "read" the end and locate one that's fairly thick and symmetrical and hope like hell it runs the length of the stave.
TWICE, on my "select" stave I followed the ring all of the way to almost the other end, only for it to thin out and disappear or cut through it!!
It truly is a master test of patience and I'm not sure I've got it in me anymore.
Once you have your ring followed from end to end, the rest is fairly simple. The belly is just worked down to whichever design/shape you're aiming for, while keeping the top and bottom as symmetrical as possible so it will have a nice gradual, symmetric arc with no flat spots or "hinges".
I think yew bows are generally worked up as an "English" style which would be flat on the back but oval on the belly.
I'd have to look in some of my old books, but if I'm remembering correctly, I think that design is neccasary with yew.
If you get serious about it Lonny, cut it now then seal the ends with any old kind of sealer. That'll keep it from drying too fast causing it to split.
Posts: 205 | From: Ks | Registered: Jun 2011
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Lonny
PANTS ON THE GROUND
Member # 19
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posted July 15, 2014 08:47 PM
Thanks for the info Duck. I need to do some studying so I can look at a live tree and visualize a decent piece for stave.
I'd read where the time of year you cut a Yew stave can make a difference also. When the sap is down in the winter is best, while other sources said it didn't matter. Any truth to that in your experience?
Posts: 1209 | From: Lewiston, Idaho USA | Registered: Jan 2003
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knockemdown
Our staff photo editing Guru, par excellence
Member # 3588
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posted July 16, 2014 03:38 AM
Very cool, Kevin!
Love seeing that level of passion behind project, to see it through and come to a rewarding finish with a beautiful buck! That is some character building stuff, right there!!!
Posts: 2202 | From: behind fascist lines | Registered: Mar 2010
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DAA
Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director
Member # 11
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posted July 16, 2014 05:07 AM
That is just way too stinking cool!
- DAA
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"Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969.
Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter
Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kelly Jackson
SECOND PLACE/GARTH BROOKS LOOK-A-LIKE CONTEST
Member # 977
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posted July 16, 2014 05:34 AM
Nice Duck. Dad has a bow made by an old Comanche that he has had for 50 years. Cornbred was the mans name. He couldnt shoot for shit, but he love to watch the arrows fly...
Posts: 997 | From: Comanche OK | Registered: Oct 2006
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Duckdog
Knows what it's all about
Member # 3842
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posted July 16, 2014 08:53 AM
Lonny, you'll find that a lot of the "expert" bowyers don't always agree, but I'd say that most of them reccomend cutting in the winter, and the Cherokee tradition is to cut when the moon is between it's last quarter and it's first quarter and nearer to the dark of the moon.
I took that out of a book of mine written by Al Herrin, a Cherokee Indian from Talequa Oklahoma. I don't even remember where I got that book, (it's falling apart now), but he actually wrote his phone number in it and I called and chatted with him when I had questions. I guess that's what we did pre-Internet huh?...
Now, having said that, almost all of what I wrote pertains to Osage Orange, (hedge), and yew has a lot of distinct characteristics all it's own.
For example, I think you use the sapwood of a yew tree for the back, whereas the sapwood of hedge is useless.
John Strunk is/was kind of the authority of yew bows in all of my books, and I think he cuts whenever the mood strikes.
I don't have any idea what's out there on the net about self bows, (probably a lot!!), but I would highly reccomended "The Traditional Bowyers Bible Vol 1". It's got everything you'd ever want to know about building a yew bow.
Kelly, I'd love to see that old Comanche bow if you ever get a chance to take a picture. A lot of those old Osage bows are almost black from the oils seeping to the top. I never knew hedge had that much oil in it until I started handling it. It stains your fingers while you're working it.
I think some of that "black" in the old bows also comes from the fact that they preferred bear and hog fat to seal them.
Posts: 205 | From: Ks | Registered: Jun 2011
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Duckdog
Knows what it's all about
Member # 3842
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posted July 16, 2014 09:04 AM
...I used to hunt with a guy that was full blood Kickapoo. His Dad's first and middle name was Calvin Coolidge! I always thought that was funny, but I think naming for presidents might have been pretty common.
My mom did some tracing of the family tree and there were a few "George Washington" names in there.
Posts: 205 | From: Ks | Registered: Jun 2011
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted July 16, 2014 03:47 PM
Hats off to you DD that is quite an undertaking and a beautiful finished product. Any animal taken with a self bow is a prize. That must have been very fulfilling.
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 16, 2014 08:12 PM
Awesome taking game with a bow you made yourself.
I never had the urge to build my own bow but I can't remember the last time I shot a `store bought` arrow.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7579 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 17, 2014 08:42 AM
Even so, that's a lot of whittling.
When I was about 6 or 7, I was bugging my dad for archery stuff. I don't know why, never discussed it with him but one day he brought me a long piece of wood, and I already had a jackknife.
But, this was OAK, and man, I hacked at that chunk of wood until I got discouraged, without any input or advice whatsoever. As I recall, I only carved on one side but it completely cured me. No sander, no tools at all except a friggin' jackknife.
End of story. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31460 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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