Got a hankering for another natural !

[Forwardhandle]

Been a while sense I did a natural bow but this was a experiment I did a while back a 65 ntn 47lb @31 it was a 13" riser/handle about 19" working limb and the rest kinked leaver it was the fastest self bow I had ever made while it lasted eventualy pulled splinters hence the serving wraps and the hickory started bracking down after 300 shots I made it as a concept bow to eventualy make a sinew counter part so I have a 3yr old hickory stave thats been stored at 50% RH that Im using and just going to sinew the 19" working limb & leave the leavers naked to keep mass low & and reverse string about 4 " reflex plus the kinked tips ! Just going threw my corner of shame spoted it & got motivated and I need a light project to do over the construction season !

[Flem]

Looking forward to see what you can do Ritchie!
I have a rack of shame. Did not have much luck with my first and only Hickory attempt. This was a board Bow. About the only thing it does well is block the wind. As you can see, it took a vicious amount of set. It pulls 65lbs@ 28" and has the cast of a Monkey throwing a turd.

[Forwardhandle]

Well we should do a wall of shame thread  the more I thought about it sense Im doing a natural might as well make somthing different here is a really prestine osage stave I brought inside in 2015 its as perfect as you can get but only 57" so Im thinking of making a Reginald Laubin type bow pin knocked instead 57" 45lb @31 Hum ?

[Crooked Stic]

For the little I know about Self bows that looks good. But I bet you better NOT be startin shaveins in that room
   

[Forwardhandle]

If she even knew I took the pic in there I would get the dirty wood in the house Sermon 

[Flem]

 Reginald Laubin, isn't he that Indigeno Blanco fella?

[Forwardhandle]

Yep he wrote American Indian Archery I read the book years ago & said one day I will make one of his bows this bow was designed around Indian style short draw bows but Im taking his concept & modifying it for full, full draw 31"....lol most of his bows where shorter then 57" so Im leving out the handle/riser reflex and less agresive hook the one Im going to do is more a retro style hook similar to the pic below just enough to keep the string on and most of the reflex will be reverse strung Im doing 3-4 ply sinew Im guessing 1000 grain the limb core is going to get pretty thin hense the less aggresive hooks avoiding twist , alignment is going to be a issue with maxing this out but that stave is the one to try with !

[Forwardhandle]

I dont think the osage stave has enough width to pull it off so Im back to the hickory..lol but got this laid out and ruffed out still deciding 12" or 13" riser at 13 ruffly have 18" working limb Im thinking stay there stressing out the sinew good @31" well see going to try to get this cleaned up and bending later , Im not going to do a build along & just post when done unless sombody wants to see the process !

[Flem]

That looks like a fun challenge
It looks like the pattern has a 8.5" handle/riser section. I'm wondering why you are going with a longer one.
Seems like you are going to concentrate a lot of action into a pretty short portion of working limb. Does the sinew make that a non issue?  I for one would love to see the process, always up for learning something new!
 

[Forwardhandle]

That handle riser is 13" now ,this was a exspermental bow with long handle short working limbs & longer leavers it was fast as a self bow but couldnt hold up so The bow is 64" if I sinewed the whole bow it would be a slug do to the mass of the sinew but with the short working limb only geting sinew and put under high stress it should more then earn its weight so really what you have is a 36" bow conected with a longer handle and 8" leavers it should be fast with low stack good string angle @31 well see all guess work ! Ok then I will post as I muddle threw it & Im going to try some new processing tricks I learned for the first time ! And if it fails I will show that to...lol

[Forwardhandle]

Flem Im no exspert with these leaver bows I have only built a half dozen of them & never built the same way so Im just applying what was learned before to this one but how Im going about this Im going with 19" working limb so next step is work in the fades down to 5/8" on the limbs & taper about 1/16" every 1/3 of the limb to start I will probably have a 70lb bow at that point but want to make sure the tller is good to about 12" workng the limbs down to a guess of 40lb before sinew , got a copy of my buddys half caul that Im making and going to heat treat the limb profile in & reverse string before sinew , hickory responds to heat treating better then any wood I have used & takes the issues that others have said with hickory , Heat treated hickory & sinew makes a great combo !

[Pat B]

Hickory does make a great bow and adding sinew can add great performance. One problem I have with that combo is in high R/H areas that combo can change from a rocket launcher to a slug. Years ago I made a copy of Jay Massey's Medicine Bow, sinew backed hickory with a rawhide covering. When I made it it drew 56#@26". A month later it dropped to 45#@26" due to high humidity. I sent it to a friend in Colorado to play with and in a month out there the draw weight went up to almost 65#. The bow was sealed well with Tru-Oil and a good coat or two of poly. The bow shoots well at 45#, This bow even killed a doe with a stone pointed horseweed arrow in Connecticut and a turkey in Florida.
 even well sealed the R/H at the time affected the draw weight of the bow.

[Forwardhandle]

I have heard the same thing I have a couple Hickory/sinew bows the one in the pic I got a opportunity  to shoot right over the top of a nice doe...lol but the core was heat treated and I have never had the bow degrade on humid days but did notice in winter months it picked up steam I store my bows in 50% RH or less all year & take them out for a day or two I shot that bow in the rain for for the Desplains river 3D shoot & pulled number 2 in traditional class ,I seal mine with tru oil & pre cat lacquer & wax and honestly never had a issue I know Jay Masey was a big fan of the combo !

[kennym]

Man, I thought these bows were low tech all this time!!  Like reading all the tips and tricks!!

[Forwardhandle]

It is low/Tech hand tools 2:00 am that way I dont wake the Honey/Do boss