Here are some pictures, but
this bow is NOT FINISHED YET. I still have some light sanding with the steel wool to do, I need to put the massey epoxy finish on, and I need to put the grip and shelf on.
Overall, I do think I was lucky, despite having a good teacher (Gary Sentman). I "named" my design "Protege' Longbows" with the intent of giving Gary Sentman credit for his influence on my design, as he has been a traditional archer mentor of mine for about 15 years...but now that he has retired from bowmaking I now have to make my own bows. My design has several features that I learned to appreciate in his bows, but it is slightly modified. It incorperates some features I liked in his moosejaw bow and has combined those traits with the features I liked in his competition bow. My intent was to create the "best of both."
I am NOT interested selling the bows at this time or in the near future. I am not qualified to do that yet and have a ways to go to "proof" my design and work. Plus, I am too busy to go into the "bowyer business. Maybe later, much later. I have been in the archery business before and for now, I just don't have the time. My plans are simply to only make a few every so often (time permitting) for some friends to build up my experience in the craft of bowmaking, and that is the way I want it to stay for a while...as I make my living as a school teacher and also as a breeder and trainer of guard dogs.
My motive for this post is simply a matter of expressing my joy of having success with my first attempt and not having to scrap my first attempt. My goal was 58#@28," and that is what I hit. Tiller is good and it shoots great.
The bow is a left handed 64" r/d design when unstrung that becomes more traditional profile when strung. It does have a long riser of 24," but most of that is long working fadeouts to prevent henges, increase durability, and to add performance. The bow is stiff and stable the way I like'em (not rubber-bandy or wet noodle like). Even though I need to finish the bow with a few more coats of finish and put a leather grip on it still, I have shot it and it shoots great. It is stable, quiet, and quick. It has considerable reflex when unstrung without being extreme...with the tips about 2 & 1/2" forward of the grip. I guess one could say "I'm stoked."
Riser is bocote with phenolic stripe. Limbs are black glass on the back, carbon under glass, bamboo core, and clear glass belly. Tip overlays are phenolic over a wedge of bocote that tapers out.
You may notice the tip overlay wood wedge actually tappers out at the string groove under the phenolic overlay. At the string groove, the tip overlay is just phenolic over the back of the bow. I have never seen that on a bow before and thought I would do this on my bows to "do something different."
This overlays was created from scraps that came off the riser when I was cutting the riser out of the phenolic/bocote block that I glued up from the riser. Then, to create the "wedge" wood I simply ground it out so the wood would only be on the overlay inside the string groove. Minor...no biggie, but something different without altering the bow design.
Topic: Made my first longbow this weekend (pictures added) (Read 980 times)
