I hope I'm not hijacking Chuck's thread.
The 6 month wait for my new Two Tracks Echo, named "Dad's Bow", has been excruciating and seemed like it would go on forever-not a complaint, just anxious. Forever ends soon as Chuck just told me that I have a bow on the way. I'll tell you how "Dad's Bow" came to be, short story long. During World War 2 my father was in the civil service as a machinist on B-17s stationed at Hendrix Field in Sebring, Florida. After the war, he was released from the civil service and worked as a gunsmith for a while. In 1946 or 47, he went to visit relatives in Newfield, NY where he cut down a walnut tree and had it cut into 3" planks and shipped to Florida to be used for gun stocks. He only cut about a dozen stock blanks from the walnut and another 4 or 5 from birdseye maple-the rest of the walnut was left to air dry in my grandfather's garage. The first 10 years of my life, my family (parents, 2 older sisters, and later a younger sister) lived in a 25' travel trailer. My parents (and then baby sister) slept in the bedroom. The other 3 of us slept in the front room, the 2 older girls slept on a sofa bed. My bed was a blanket laid over a bunch of gunstock blanks between the sofa bed and the front of the trailer, my bed for about 8 years until we bought a house in 1962.
I was talking to Chuck about making me an Echo and when he asked about the limb cores, I said bamboo, unless he thought another wood might be better (it's his design, he should know). He asked what I thought about walnut, the light bulb came on. I told Chuck the story about the stock blanks and he said "we can do this"-Dad's Bow was born. I sent Chuck some of the 65 year old air dried walnut for the limbs (a stock wasn't long enough for a limb core) and a chunk of birdseye maple from one of the stocks for the riser. My father never shot a bow, and didn't think much of hunting with a bow, but, my new bow wouldn't be here if it weren't for him. Chuck asked me a few days ago did I want to name the bow or want him to name it, I said "Dad's Bow". I now have a bow made from wood my father cut 65 years ago, hence the dedication. It's as close as I'll get to hunting with my father again, after too many years.
I'll post pictures once I get my grub paws on Dad's Bow.
Topic: "Dad's Bow" (Read 614 times)
