Merry Christmas to me! LOL. By some good grace won a minty lefty John Strunk osage English longbow, horn nocks and all! on the bargain site last night. Time to pick another bow out of the little collection of mine to move on and be replaced by this beauty. My whole goal with the collection is to have one that's well rounded with a couple different go-tos of differing weights and styles.
72" 58@27! Sweet!
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/strunk.jpg)
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s5.jpg)
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s6.jpg)
This will probably make a better hunting weapon than that warbow I bought, LOL
Beautiful bow.
That unbraced profile is very interesting. Could you add a full draw picture. I would love to see how it looks with the limbs bent the way Mr. Strunk intended it to.
Thanks
QuoteOriginally posted by ChristopherO:
That unbraced profile is very interesting. Could you add a full draw picture. I would love to see how it looks with the limbs bent the way Mr. Strunk intended it to.
Thanks
Chris- here's the photo of it drawn from the ad:
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s11.jpg)
Once the bow has arrived I'll take some new photos of it in my hands and with me drawing it.
What did you pay?
350 shipped, thought that was a real nice figure based on my prior research. Did I get screwed? LOL
Great deal IMO!
Cool beans ten'. There's not much info on the web about John other than praise, which is a good thing. I was led to believe anything under 400ish is a find for one of his bows, honestly I didn't think I'd win it but no one else outbid me so Santa must have had me on the 'nice list' :)
Strunk bows are the best selfbow out there ....there are a few others in his category ..but you can't go wrong with one...imho
I can't wait. She shipped today. At 72" and 58-60# she should be a sweetheart.
She's here!! Man John Strunk builds a knockout! Turns out I got her from sstewa who's also here on Tradgang. He got her from Ghost Dog on a Tradgang auction 2 years ago. Ghost commissioned her from Strunk. She's 72" overall, 68" nock to nock. The osage is absolutely on fire, when the light hits it it just GLOWS, almost crystalline sorta. Pretty fun stringing it step-thru too (don't worry I'm super careful, this bow was not designed to use a stringer, lol) real classic. The horn tips are works of art just by themselves. I plan to shoot this thing all day on Saturday...
More pics!:
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s81.jpg)
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s21.jpg)
osage on fire!!
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s51.jpg)
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s41.jpg)
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s31.jpg)
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s101.jpg)
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s62.jpg)
single growth ring behind grip/ neato!
(http://i1309.photobucket.com/albums/s631/nineworlds9/Strunk/s91.jpg)
almost has a kind of r/d limb to it
John is a great bowyer,craftsman,and great man.Every man needs one of these.He had a huge part of bringing me back to trad.archery.And oh my gosh,does he ever build nice knives too!Congrats on a fine new girl in your harem.
thanks chan! i agree, every handmade bow i've had the pleasure of sampling since i got back into this sport has a character and soul all its own, but this one definitely border on 'alive'! LOL
Awesome!!
If that bow doesn't get your mind into "Sherwood", none will!!!
Thanks for sharing.
God bless,Mudd
I know what I'm gonna be for Halloween this year!! :biglaugh: :archer2:
Lord-a-mercy she's a beauty!! Congrats to you for the find and deal. Also glad to know the provenance on her here in the trad gang family. Makes me want to try a self bow, it won't be that pretty, but I now have a great goal to reach for!
Adam and I spent a week in Tillamook; had a great bow building class with Mr. Strunk, and ate soft shelled crab till we almost burst. You can get some inexpensive cottages at the coast. Boil your own crab and have a wonderful time building bows, eating crab, drinking a few cold ones, and waiting for Elk season!
Sounds like an awesome time! Would love to get a chance to do something like that.
Very nice looking bow! John is a gifted man. Here is one of his knives.
(http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u31/snag23/knife_zpsa1979327.jpg)
Adam and I spent a week in Tillamook; had a great bow building class with Mr. Strunk, and ate soft shelled crab till we almost burst. You can get some inexpensive cottages at the coast. Boil your own crab and have a wonderful time building bows, eating crab, drinking a few cold ones, and waiting for Elk season!
Sounds good Bjorn!
Chuck what spine arrow did the bow like?
I'm shooting it for the first time tomorrow, I've been busy working. Bow has a pretty good offset being an ELB. Ghost Dog/sstewa said they had good luck with something 50-55 spine. Will try what I've got lying around and see.
John is a great bowyer....you are going to love that bow. I have had a couple of his and a vine maple wonder is on my rack now. a rawhide or sinew backed osage is coming later in year though. LOL
Should be a great bow. From the symetrical look of the limbs I suspect it was crafted from spliced sister billets.
Oh my , I am so happy for you , man thats dandy...mark from Louisiana way! :campfire: :goldtooth:
Thanks guys! I'm stoked to shoot it tomorrow. I can't stress how beautiful the osage is. I will ask Ghost Dog about the sister billet thing. He and sstewa were very happy the bow went to someone who will cherish it and shoot it often.
Nice!
The bow was made from spliced billets. The unstrung profile is indicative of the shape of the tree as it grew. It is possible to steam osage and other woods into a preferred shape, but it is also possible to tiller a challenging stave or billet stave into a bow. That is what John is good at.
I put this bow in the St. Jude's auction. I had just received it and thought it might bring some meaningful money to the total and give something interesting for left handed archers to bid on. It did not bring much, sadly, but it did contribute something.
Check this John Strunk bow out. http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=042659#000000
Here is another one, although not as dramatic.
http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=083472#000000
It's the hands of "the master" that determines whether you're playing a fiddle or Stratovirious violin.
Mr Strunk has the hands of a master.
God bless,Mudd
A beauty of a bow nw9, hope it brings you many years of enjoyment! I have a Yew version of your bow.
I hauled a load of Yew billets down to John one time and got to see this snakey Osage flatbow...I might have brought it home with me if it didn't already have a customers name on it.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/treekiller/bows%20and%20arrows/snakebow.jpg)
John made me this Pacific Yew bow in 1988 and I killed a pretty nice Blacktail buck with it in 1990.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v117/treekiller/trophy%20photos/1990yewbuck2-1.jpg)
Thanks for the additional info and for sharing Bob!
Tree- niiiice!
Oh btw, she shoots like a dream! QUIIIIIET!!!!! Great cast!
John must be a wizard, at 15 yds I barely have to try. I'm simply amazed. This bow would give my Old Tom a run for its money.
This is my 2nd selfbow and I had no idea an all wood bow could hurl an arrow like this. My warbow doesn't count cause its trilaminate wood and gigantic.. I think this bow is spoiling the crap out of me, I'll judge all future selfbows by it. Just shot it again before sunset. Simply amazing.
Amazing,osage isnt the best stuff for ELB but that one has hardly any set.bet its a nice shooter made by The Man.