St. Judes BBY build along? IT'S DONE!! Pics included

[horseapple]

Guys, my personal opinion is that leaving a space or gap at the handle area with the skins looks crappy, just my opinion, also never did like the skins not going all the way to the tips either... hope I don't upset people but its only one guys opinion. Dave, I do like your super glued handle work.

Joe Don

[JC]

The talent of you guys is simply awesome...can't wait to see this bow finished. Now I'm off to go see what I can sell and at least bid on this bow once....

[Dave Bulla]

Back again.

Gonna jump forward to the finished project and get done with these pictures.

Here is the left side.
 

The right.
 

View from the belly.  I really like this angle.  The thin brown layer really matches the brown in the snakewood and ties it together.  That little tiny ridge across the belly makes a huge difference in the hand.  Feels real good.
 

Here is how it lays in the hand.
 

Looks nice among the dogwoods.  Since I did most of the work Easter Sunday, I thought some pics with our dogwood flowers would be appropriate.

[Razorbak]

Dave..that looks great

[John Sturtevant]

Really starting to come together.   Great job Dave.
I sure hope I get a chance to see the bow in person someday when it is finished.

I’d like to offer something for consideration.

I just finished a couple of bows with carp skin, and unless Tim has some longer ones then what I pilfered off of him at Mojam it may be difficult to get them to match in the center without a gap.  
If they are long enough, I’m sure Tim is capable of getting them spliced perfectly.
However…as I recall, I left the BB on the back of the handle squared off thinking there was leather going there and it would be rounded off then.  
Since this is not the case, another option would be to put a thin piece of horn on the back of the handle, maybe 3, 3.5” long and butt the carp skin to it.  It can be feathered into the skin the same way it is on the horn tips.   Instead of horn I suppose black leather and super glue could be used….but the horn would probably be what I’d use if it were my bow.  
Regardless, I believe the back of the handle is going to need some further shaping.

I’m not sure what the finishing plans are, but with T-bird it seems to take 8-10 coats with a lot of sanding to really blend everything in.   With care they melt in…..and in my opinion look better then any backing I’ve seen.   Just takes some effort to really do it right…..

[Tom Leemans]

Dave - I like the way you wrapped the shelves around to the belly. I bet it sits in the hand well. A bulbous locator handle? Uh-oh you just gave me an idea for an ambush bow handle.    

John - I like the sounds of using a horn overlay as a cosmetic solution to the skins problem.

[Littlefeather]

John, I will probably use T-Bird. Not quite sure yet but don't worry about blending them too much. As long as they are close I'll make everything flow like it is one piece. As long as I have the time to get the finish work proper she should turn out really nice. Sorry I've not followed much of this thread. It's almost impossible on dial-up to deal with all the pics.

I lost a buffalo(carp) at lunch that would have probably done the bow backing without any gap. He won the battle and will swim for another day. CK

[Doug Campbell]

Wow!! Lookin forward to seeing this'n when it's done.      

[Dave Bulla]

John, I'm kinda glad to hear you say that about the handle having not been rounded fully.  Every time I pick it up I want to put an overlay on the back to just complete the "feel" I like.  I was thinking that maybe so many people take for granted the flatness on the back of a handle that it just feels normal.  Since I've been adding the rounded overlays the flat back doesn't feel right to me.  Not really bad, just I like the rounded back better.  I might have to get on the horn tomorrow with Timo and Wingnut so we can decide what to do before I send it on.  I'd be happy to do a leather overlay or else send it to someone who might want to do a wood or horn one.  I've got some feather crotch black walnut here that has some incredible figure I could throw in if someone can cut lams good enough to make overlays out of it.  I used it on a recurve I repaired and it looked great but my table saw leaves a bit to be desired when trying to cut a clean lam.

Here is a picture.  It's artificial light but the figure shows up decent.  I'm thinking maybe make two lams and flip one for a mirror image then but the two ends together in the center of the bow so there is matching grain in both directions.
     

It was a piece of firewood I thought might have some nice grain by the way it split so I cut it and put some true oil on the cut to see what it looked like.  That was three or four years ago and it's been setting around ever since so it's probably nicely dried and doesn't show signs of cracking.  What would worry me is that it may be too brittle if cut into lams because what you see in the pics is basically end grain.  When I used it for the overlay I did, I kept it about 1/8" thick and then sanded it down some after it was glued in place.

Edit... Guess a picture by the bow handle for a size ref would be good eh?

   

And here is a side view of the wood.  It is one half of a crotch and I suspect the very best grain is right where I have it cut but a full length cut might reveal a nice piece too.  Yo can see by the ripples that the fancy grain runs all the way down but the crotch part probably stops about where the bottom of the big torn out looking spot is near the middle.
   

So Timo, how long are your fish skins?

[wingnut]

At this point with all of the debate about how to terminate the skins, I'm tempted to terminate the skins.  LOL

Dave take a pic of the back of the handle, if you would so we can see what we have to work with.  I am not fond of the overlays on the back of the handle myself and prefer to round over my edges of the boo to get a more eliptical feel.  But that's my personal opinion.

If I remember right, the Tonkin on that bow is quite pretty, we might want to just leave it uncovered and go to finishing.

What do ya think?

Mike

[Tom Leemans]

Mike - I had no problems shooting it but I did notice the flatness on the back of the handle. Not saying it was bad but I could feel it. I could flip a coin on skins vs. no skins myself. I like the idea of the skins. They look really cool on a bow but this bow would look good either way. If we go with an overlay on the handle, I vote for horn. My .02

Tom

[JC]

Oh ya gotta do fish skins....nothin looks cooler on a selfbow to me. But then, I ain't never owned, built or shot one much...so what do I know  

[Dave Bulla]

Tom, that's about how I'd sum it up too.  It's not a bad thing, just noticable and even if you do notice it, it's not any different than most other bows.  Heck, the glass lam bow I shoot all the time has about the same amount of flat on the back of it.  This bow is good looking enough that no matter what gets done it'll still be a great bow.  It can either be left as is, rounded a bit more, overlayed with ???? and it will not make a whit of difference.  It's still gonna be a special bow.  I really apologize if I've made a mountain out of a mole hill on this.

Mike, don't know if you've seen the second pic in my last post that showed the handle back or if the angle is not what you wanted so I'll post one from the side in just a bit.

Here ya go.
 

[Littlefeather]

I know I'm just the finish guy in this project but I gotta say that I think the skins are a "must do". Either carp or I have one really big bullsnake skin that I'd donate. I also hate the feel of a square edge on a bow handle. I think the overlay would be very nice although I think snakewood would be preferable to match the other snakewood. Just my 2 cents! CK

[John Sturtevant]

Mike, I might suggest the back of the handle needs some rounding either way, overlay or not.     I believe it can be shaped to suit with or without the overlay…..only reason to add it would be if it’s needed to help terminate the skins.  

Carp skins will add a touch of class to the bow in a way that only dead fish parts can.  Hope you decide to use them.  Probably increase the bidding 9.5% or so.
Maybe just send it on to Tim and see what he can do?  

(There was enough snakewood left for an overlay….and it would probably look better then horn.  Good thought Curtis.)

[wingnut]

John,

That's a good thought.  Let's send it on to TimO and let him work his magic with the carp and use the snakewood if necessary to terminate the carp in the middle and round the back a bit.

Mike

[Timo]

I forgot how long the limbs are on this bow? I have some really long skins that could make it to the mid section,possibly.Got another idea or 2,but I'll wait till it gets here.

[Dave Bulla]

That'll work.  I'll tube it up and head for the post office before work.

[Lost Arra]

Count me in for the 9.5% higher bid for the dead fish parts.  :D

[Tom Leemans]

That's right, I forgot about the snakewood.