Ha! You thought this topic was going to be all about a toy for little girls, dintcha?!?! :biglaugh:
Nope, I'm just braggin' off a little about my latest bow.
It started off last year at the Tennessee Classic: There's a woman there, Coleen, who shoots these amazing little short-draw bows. Everyone's interested in the things & is totally intrigued as to what they are. All she'll ever let on is that they're made of 'Fiberwood'
My good buddy Kenny Yoder (4Runr) just happened to have a beautiful 60" stave of this magical material that he donated to me, to try my hand with.
It came with the amazing reflex & recurved tips you see in the pictures, already formed. All I really needed to do was cut it to length, form a handle & scrape & scrape & scrape & scrape.
Then I scraped some more & after I was done scraping, I picked up a scraper & got back to it. You see, when I cut it to length (42" tip to tip) it was drawing in excess of 100# at the 22" drawlength I reguired.
Eventually, after judicial thinning, sanding & many many minutes on the tiller tree, I got it down to a little less than I'd hoped for; 44#@22" although I overstepped a little & can actually get it back to 24"
It ain't the fastest bow on the planet, shooting around 140fps at 24" with a 480gn arrow, but I reckon it'll do.
I 'stained' the belly of the little beauty & skinned the back with some leftover slivers of a Diamondback I had lying around, wrapped the handle in some deerskin & whipped both ends with red-dyed sinew to stop the skins lifting & protect the recurves a little.....
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/IMG_20130327_133846_952_zpse91aed17.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/IMG_20130327_134011_804_zps0bd066a6.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/IMG_20130327_133913_946_zpsa7fda36b.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/IMG_20130327_133917_527_zpsbe6d0c4a.jpg)
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/IMG_20130327_133930_300_zps10e338ef.jpg)
Bragging rights to whoever can guess what it started out as...... :D
Oh, and full draw pics to come as soon as I can get my camerawoman away from work.
English longbow....lol
A 1975 Ford Pinto??
Whale baleen
skis?
Lol well this is obvious. Uh but part of it used to be a snake ;)
Couldn't have been a tooth pick ? , cool looking bow ! :campfire:
It started out a "fiber wood"! Good to see you Rob!
Can I guess??????????????? :bigsmyl: :bigsmyl: :bigsmyl:
How u been, my brutha from anotha mutha??
FIBERGLASS
(http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y110/robtattoo/IMG_20130328_215854_545_zpse3d8fdb3.jpg)
Pretty cool, Rob. Thanks for posting some pics of it. I have no idea what fiberwood is.
I'm guessing fiberwood is the stuff they make out of sawdust and scrap wood, ground up and mixed with a resin or glue and formed usually into sheets though it can be made into staves as well I reckon with the right press. Looks like you won't be reaching a consistent anchor on your face, but I bet its still fun to shoot. I had the same problem with a little five curve horsebow that had a 23" draw (45#) though it could pull to 24", it literally hit a wall after that. If I extended my thumb back to my face I could touch the corner of my mouth and reach a consistent anchor that way.
Hiya Kenny! :wavey: Been good Brother!
Danny's about got it right.
The bow started life as, well, a different bow. To be a little more specific a 60" solid glass, 50# Indian Archery bow.
I cut out the 18" riser & fade section, leaving me with 2 short 21" limbs. I bought a 6" length of 1" galvanized duct tube & flattened it in the vice until I could slot the limbs into it. I then epoxied the limbs into the flattened tube & voila! Instant short bow! :D
All the rest of the work went into reducing weight & finishing it up to look old, fancy & Indianey.
Total work time not including glue setting, paint & skins........ about an hour. :goldtooth:
As far as anchoring goes, it's kinda tough with having a natural 31½" draw, but I can reference the heel of my thumb to the corner of my mouth. Not an exact science (so far) but I'm accurate enough at 15yds right now that I'd be confident in taking a shot on game.
Rob,
looks great :thumbsup:
You gotta saddle up your pony now and giddy up :archer:
Have fun :archer2: her
Greetings from across the pond.
Nice Bow Rob. Coleen use to come to ATAR. She always had some interesting bow or something . Interesting character too. I saw her chug a beer and then break the bottle on a rock and then knap out a perfect arrow head from the glass botttom in almost less time than it took to type this post. Hope you been doing good. about ready to share another campfire if you know what I mean. lol. Don
Colleen will be proud!!
You did that thing up right!