Been working on a hickory selfbow for a while. I cut the tree down in July around my birthday on the 6th and worked the bow to near final dimensions while still green.
Bow was made basically like an american flatbow with crowned back and flat belly. Character twists and turns were not removed but were left in. The top limb has a crazy bulge in it but overall it started with nearly 1/2" of reflex.
There it sat for months drying until finally, I pulled it out of the closet to find it springy, light, and sharp sounding when banged against the walls and closet rack coming out.
It was time to get working again. I've been reading TBB1 and 4 (dont ask) and I've been dying to do some heat treating and dry reflexing. So I did.
Introduced about 1.5" of reflex, mainly to the tips of the bow. and heat treated the entire limbs.
Bow is 62" ttt and roughly 2" wide at fades, tapering to 1/4" or so tips. The thinnest I've made yet. Not quite pyrimidal, it's what I'd call a pleases my eye taper, taper increasing near the tips and almost straight by the fades.
Bow feels about 40-45# @ 26" and holds about 1+" of reflex after being unbraced overnight. Still hasn;t been shot in, but I expect it to be slightly reflexed or 0" of string follow with slight R/D profile.
Pictures below for those interested. Still have to laminate on some wood to the handle which was planed flat, and need to cut a shelf etc. Otherwise it's finished aside from some spar varnish which is my new standard finish.
Let me know what you think!
No pics over 600 pixels
Topic: Hickory selfbow finished minus handle (Read 406 times)
