It's been a good bow-week, all in all. Two Morrison Cheyennes arrive, a day apart & this morning the polyeurathane has finished drying on my John Scifres recurve!
John went over & above the call of duty on this blank for me. I was looking for a short 56-60" selfbow to compete in our Primitive class over here. I already have one stunning longbow by Shawn Webb but, well, you can't have too many toys now, can you! :D
My trouble with selfbows, especially short selfbows, is that I have gorilla arms & a 30" draw. "No problemo" says John. He's recurved the bow & backed it with Elk leg Sinew & it draws sweeeeet & smooth out to 30" No ominous creaks, groans or untoward goings on here!
It was sent to me as a tillered but unfinished blank. I was told from the outset that I may haveto tweek the tiller slightly, but to be honest I've never attempted anything like that before. I sanded, smoothed & polished until I was happy & strung 'er up for a shot or two. Well, I could see that the tiller wasn't 100% but after 100 arrows she shot sweet & shock free, so being the lazy incompetent that I am, I figured that it was near enough!
I applied some scraps of Bocote as tip overlays & then sat & stared & stared until I was cross-eyed, nervous as heck about gluing on the B-E-A-yootiful Bullsnake skin. I studied Ferret's instructions, pored over all 3 volumes of The Bowyer's Bible, sweated, fretted & finally caved to my own self-imposed pressure......
Don't know what all the fuss is about! It's easy!
I glued it all up with TBIII, cleaned & de-scaled & then had an agonising 24hrs wait for e glue to set up before I could start applying the finish.
Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap........
A brief wipe-down with acetone later, 4 coats of gloss PU spray laquer were thrown on & left to dry.
Fast forward to this morning & a sprint (well, hung-over crawl) to The Workcave & we're done!
Shootable, pretty, smooth, sweet & sexy! For my firstest attempt at anything bowyer-ey I couldn't be happier!
Many, many thanks must go to John for doing all the actual work & also a huge thanks to a man who's name completely eludes me (Sorry!!) for the donation of the perfect, 70" bullsnake skin.
On with the pics, I suppose!
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow001.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow002.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow003.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow005-1.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow006-1.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow007-1.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow008-1.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/selfbow010.jpg)
One good looking selfbow!
beautiful!!you did a great job!
awesome bow Rob. Your yard looks saweeet!<><
WOW! sweeeeeeeet looking bow! gorrila arms, more like T-Rex arms, got to love a beautiful selfbow!
wow its a great looking bow! nice job on the snake skin mate :thumbsup:
WOW that looks great.
Nice work. If it shoots as good as it looks its a keeper.
Nice bow :thumbsup:
Very nice looking bow there, Rob! Enjoy and good luck with it! ;) :thumbsup:
Excellent job! ... for a knife-maker :biglaugh:
Sweet!
outstanding.... you have real skills
Very nice Rob!
I'm jealous! Love them Selfbows....gonna try to recurve one....If I ever get the courage...hate to mess up a good peice of wood.
Beautiful Bow!!!!!!
Since you have such a backlog of bows to shoot, just send that one to me and I'll break her in for you!! :D :D :D
David
Niiiice!
What a sweet looking bow! Well done!
Larry
Rob,
Great job on the bow. The finish is superb and the overlays are sweet. It was Darren "Hackbow" Shue who provided the skin. It looks great on that bow. I hope she serves you well at the shoots.
John