Did Someone Say Snaky???

[John Scifres]

So my good buddy Mickey "The Ferret" Lotz once tried to make the "Perfect Snake" by drawing a pattern on a straight-grained hickory board and cutting it out.  It almost worked but, predictably, lifted a spinter at one of the snakes.  Sometime later he came up with this thing and started to make the "Perfect Snake II".  He sorta retired from making bows before he finished it.  One thing led to another and I volunteered to finish it for him during a recent visit.

Here's how I received it.

 

He had chased the ring and laid it out pretty well.  Unfortunately, he missed a couple snakes and the grain was severely compromised in two spots.  I'll blame it on his old age or bad eyesight or getting distracted by one of the monster bucks that hang out in his backyard.  At any rate, this 68" bow has now become a 57" bow but it should survive and be really cool.

Here's where I am now.  It's bending pretty well on the floor.  Over the next week or so, I'll cut some nocks and see if I can tiller it.

 

 

 

[SportHunter]

Very cool bow John, looking forward to seeing the finished product.

[Dan Landis]

Wow John, that thing is just screamin to become a snake of some sort.....Dan

[Robertfishes]

very nice! I think it will be a shooter

[Pat B]

Good luck with that snake, John. Those babies can be tricky to tiller.

[Shaun]

You will need a piece of corkscrew willow to make the matching arrow. Looking forward to seeing the full draw pic on this one.

[broketooth]

i will pay attention to this thread, i cant wait for the next installment

[John Scifres]

For those of you who don't know Mickey, please take my teasing in the right way.  He is a master bowyer and incredibly talented.  He is also responsible in part for the resurgence of wooden bows and certainly for getting and keeping me involved in making wooden bows.

I won't get much if anything done today as I have a dinner date with Mom.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Fantastic blank John.

[LeeNY]

John, I wondered what happened to that. I new he started it, I'm glad to see it's in good hands!

Lee

[mwosborn]

That is very cool.  Can't wait to see it tillered!  Good luck.

[Dave Bowers]

That's gonna look sweet  

[coaster500]

That's going to be very cool indeed!!!

[Sam Harper]

I love it!  I can't wait to see it bend.  :-)

[Osagetree]

That's gonna be too cool for school!

I see you got your spider repelent in the basket!

Here's a shot of Lotz and me years ago. You've probably seen it before so this is for those who may have not had the pleasure to know him. He was nice enough to bring me some gifts as I was recovering. Talented and a real nice guy. He also was a big influrence on me getting in to the osage selfbows.
 

Can't wait to see more John!

[John Scifres]

Hey Joe,  Those are fake hedge balls (actually some fru-fru decor thing) but they still scare the spiders away     Nice pic.  Mickey has a hell of a smile.

[mwirwicki]

Nice stick, John!  Can't wait to see her finished.  I'm kinda jealous...

[REBbowhunter]

Great looking stave. I built my first bow following Ferrets
Directions on his web site,it was a great web page.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

John I like my snakes in the 50ish range at 28"    
 That's gonna be sweet for sure

[KellyG]

I tell you it is funny I have one of his cane arrow threads I found and is what brought me to this site in my first deployment back in 05. I think I have it saved still on my old laptop as a word doc I need to look and see now.

Good luck John on that bow. I bet it is going to be a sweet looking bow. Heck you might have to put it into the PA bow of the month once it is done.