Snakewood, birdseye maple, and good friends

[John Havard]

A few days ago I received a surprise gift from my friends and business partners - Mike, Jason, & Connie Westvang.   This riser showed up quite unexpectedly in the mail:

 

Mike and Jason had heard me offering the opinion that I had always wanted to try snakewood in a riser.  I went on further to say that in spite of its light mass weight I always had loved birdseye maple risers.  Well, little did I know that they'd follow up on those musings and make a Christmas present for me out of those two woods.  Feast your eyes on this baby.

 

I mounted a set of long ACS recurve limbs on the riser that I happened to have here for some testing and strung it up.  Shot a few HEAVY moose arrows and buried them deeply into my Rinehart block target.  Thank goodness the arrows pulled easily.

 
 

I worked for many years for a $30+billion/year company in the corporate world in executive management.  Learned that some folks, in spite of what they say, might not be someone you would want to "go down the river with" to use a Rusty phrase.  But now, I not only love what I do but I truly love and enjoy the folks I'm doing it with.  When you can do what you love and when you do that with people you respect and enjoy, life doesn't get much if any better than that!

 
 

The mirror opposite of this bad boy is (or was, not sure if it's still there) placed into our stock of risers.

John (aka Wind In His Hair/aka "the Dryad Engineering Nerd"

[Kevin Dill]

I think I need a napkin....

 :D

[wildgame]

That snake wood makes great looking bows!!

[drewsbow]

very nice riser and great gesture , you are blessed to have good friends  

[fmscan]

John, You are a RICH man!

[John Havard]

Drew & Frank,

Don't I know it!  I am indeed blessed to have such good friends and to now have such a beautiful riser.  I was surprised how danged heavy this riser was (I LIKE and PREFER heavy mass-weight risers).  The mass weight of the snakewood clearly offsets the light weight of the maple swoop in the middle.  

I'm heading for Africa in April (mostly for a vacation with the wife but will also do a bit of hunting while there).  Originally I was going to use one of my metal risers but now that I've received this, it will be the riser I take with me.

[owlbait]

John, how will that maple look with a blood stain? Those guys are right. You can't do better than friends AND business partners you can trust. Congratulations.

[John Havard]

Mike, I intend to find out exactly how much better that maple will look with a kudu blood stain on it this spring and with moose blood on it this fall.  My guess is that it will look like a million bucks with a little fresh blood on it.

[owlbait]

That is so cool! I'm not sure those kind of hunting trips will ever be in reach for me again, so I hope you don't mind if I share your enthusiasm! Good luck!!

[YORNOC]

I would love to be a member of your posse! Incredible!!!

[John Havard]

David, there's always room for one more in the posse.  Come on in!

[SportHunter]

Great friends & stunning riser.

[JRY309]

A great looking riser,excellent combo of woods,just beautiful!

[Elkchaser]

That is an incredible looking riser and a great tribute to your compadres. Congratulations.    

[Keith Zimmerman]

Just plain beautiful.

[Pat B.]

I bet that's going to be a sweet shooter. Sure like the design and the execution appears flawless.

[John Havard]

Pat,  thanks but I need to get some pig blood on it like you are doing with your bow!

[RUSTY1]

I dont see much of the dryad risers being showed off on here as the limbs are. I am starting to really like the looks of them! I need to put my hands on one and check the grip out! Yours is a sweet looker there John!

[John Havard]

Rusty, I'm obviously a biased in my opinion - but I think they're quite nice.  Slim enough through the throat of the grip to minimize torque but beefy enough for super strength.  The medium-wrist grip (what the one in this thread is) is just right as far as I'm concerned.  I used to want a very high-wrist grip but with time my preference has been for the medium.  Probably 90% of our customers want that too.

[wingnut]

Actually John it's well over 90% that order the medium-wrist.  I think it's the most ergonomic configuration in that it allows the bones of the wrist to align with the arm and hand straight to the target.

The grip is about an inch wide and 1.5 inches deep at the throat.  About 4 3/4 inches or so around.

Mike