first hickory longbow from a stave

[walkabout]

finally getting to work on the hickory stave i brought back with me from where i grew up in pennsylvania, got it on the caul, reflexed last week, started tillering it yesterday. heres a braced pic      heres a pic at 18". still need to get the last third of the limbs moving a little bit, theyre stubborn because of the amount of reflex the bow has both naturally and induced    heres a pic of the belly showing some of the heartwood      and heres a side view showing some of the heartwood contrast as well as a few knots.    . this has been great so far building, definitly testing my patience and skills due to the reflex. overall it had about 4 inches of reflex when dried, then i put it on the caul and used heat to put some arc into the tips. im not sure if i should completely tiller the reflex out, or to tiller it as one would a R/D and simply get the bend smoothing out at full draw.

[walkabout]

oops didnt mean to put 2 of the same pics.    

[walkabout]

heres a pic of the stave unbraced. its 68"oal not following the curves      and heres a pic of the top limb, the one that took and held more reflex. it seems to me very close to a R/D in the nature of the reflex also in this pic you can see the knot just out of the fades, which im avoiding from scraping too much for fear of it crushing and causing the bow to fail.  

[va]

Walkabout -

My limited experience may make my thoughts unreliable so if the experienced guys chime in ignore me...

Both limbs need to bend farther along the length of each limb.  I would call it from mid-limb out to within 4" of the tip.

Right limb in the photo of the tiller stick looks weaker and almost hingy.

keep scraping and exercising the stiff parts.

[John Scifres]

Work from midlimb out until it gets a little more round.  Most of your bend is inner third.

[walkabout]

yea after seeing the pics i realize from midlimb out isnt bending as much as i thought it was, today im going to back off how far i draw it until those areas are bending better.i may eventually take some width off as well from these areas, its 2 inches wide so i have some options.

[red hill]

Walkabout, what is the thickness of your limbs?
Stan

[walkabout]

right out of the fades is 3/4", midlimb is 5/8", and tips are 1/2" this is after alot of slow scraping to bring these last thirds bending round. tips are beginning to look almost holmegard style, being thick and tapering from about 14" from the very tips. its looking much better now since i took the last pics. limbs are 2" wide out of the fades tapering to 1/2" at tips from just over midlimg

[walkabout]

all these measurements are rough, measuring by eyeball from the crown of the back, but theyre very close.

[Osagetree]

About time you posted some pics,,, keep'm coming!!!

[walkabout]

got a few more pics of this bow, ive done alot of scraping to get the outer halves of the limbs moving, now im down to only small stiff spots so itll be time to shape the handle soon. heres a pic of the side profile    heres a picture of the belly. its got some great character in the mixture of heartwood/sapwood.    heres a picture of the back   im happy with how its going so far, its pulling about 40#@24 inches right now, so it will probably end up around 45-50@28. it has a complex taper at the tips, with it tapering from 14 inches from the tips, then from 7 inches from tips to the very tips. i was going to tiller the last bit of the limbs by taking off width, however there are a few knots on the belly i was worried about weakening so i went with scraping. im going to finish it with an idea pat gave me, with charcoal rubbed into the wood on the back, probably going to fade it in a few spots so its not entirely dark. will post more pics when i can get it back on the tree and pulled.

[knappinman]

I love hickory because it is so forgiving my first couple of bows were hickory staves that my Grandpa sent me from Alabama (none here it Utah) I am going to try some Juniper wood this fall I think.  we've got huge stands of fire killed stuff.

[walkabout]

very cool, i myself have been trying to find some juniper but havent much luck as i dont really know the area here or anyone who has any stands of timber.

[walkabout]

ok here are a few more pics, its close to where im happy with it.heres a pic braced. its braced at fistemele, which sits in the 8" mark on my tillering tree. measured from the back of the handle right now thats roughly 7". pulls 50#@28", exactly around what i was hoping for.heres a pic pulled to 26" on the tree   top limb is on the right side. it looks kind of deceiving, toward the tips is bending according to the tillering gizmo, however thats also where the static reflex is and where there are irregularities in the stave crown that makes it seem off kilter.you can see that in the pics most of the reflex actually straightens when drawn. i still have to thin the tips so im playing it safe and not scraping toward the ends much more until i do.

[walkabout]

ok ive done some more work on this bow, got it tillered a little better, added some antler tip overlays, and decided to do a little carving on the tips since theyre pretty much nonworking wood anyway. heres a pic of the top limb tip, overlay hasnt yet been shaped in this pic   heres another angle of that tip. i really like how the heartwood is crowning the top of the snakehead carving, it should look pretty good with the finish im doing on it.   and heres a pic of it drawn to 25", pulling 55#. left limb is still a little stiff at the last third, but the fuzziness of this pic makes it look much worse than it really is.     heres a pic of the back of the limbtip with my finger for size reference.  i still need to shape the bottom limb tip, then shape the handle out and apply a finish, im not sure how long it will take me but its definitly close to done.

[kevgsp]

what is the overlay? how did u attach it with the wavy back hickory has?

How does it shoot!

[walkabout]

the overlay is whitetail antler, i had to use the finer side of my rasp and gently work the back flat in the spot i wanted the overlay, being careful to not make the spot any bigger than my intended overlay.

[walkabout]

and actually havent shot it yet, just now getting around to narrowing the handle. im gonna try it out here in a bit though and see if its gonna rattle my teeth.lol

[walkabout]

just got done with shaping the handle a little better, and flung a few arrows. shoots pretty good, hits the target hard. has a little handshock but im still working that out before i finish it up.