Hey, all.  Here's a little bow I've been working on.  It's not finished yet, but I'd thought I'd show some pictures and share the story nonetheless.  It's for my brother-in-law, who's a big hunter, has a generous heart, has given me lots of osage, and is expecting his first son in February.  All that combined, I thought he deserved a custom bow for this year's Iowa deer season.  Here's what I've come up with:

It's 60" tip to tip, has 5 1/2" ash siyahs attached with Urac and wrapped with a glue-soaked binding , and pulls 45# at 27".  It holds 1" of reflex at the tips when static, and just over a 1/4" when first unstrung.  I would have like a little less set, but this bugger has very short working limbs and is unbacked to boot.  It's quick, smooth drawing, and quiet.  

I surprised him tonight by showing him "my new bow" that I needed to shoot in.  I shot it a little bit, then asked if he wanted to give it a go.  He put about 50 shots through it, grinning the whole time.  I asked how he liked it, to which he grinned some more and said it drew smooth and was quick and light in the hand.  I said, "Good, because it's yours."  Wish I had a picture of his face, but these will have to do.  Again, it's a work in progress...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nice gesture 4est, beautifull work as well, looking forward to finished pic's.
Thanks for sharing.
Regards.
Bert.

I like it. As always beautiful work 4est.

Great looking bow. I'm jealous. Pup

Great looking bow. I'm jealous. Pup

Awesome work 4est!

Cool looking bow.....

Thanks for the kind words, folks.  I'm looking forward to a nice backstrap when he gets a deer with it.     I hope to post some finished pictures soon.

Nice work.  I like the neat work at siyahed.

Hell yeah 4est! That bow looks gorgeous and fun. As always, the craftsmanship is spot on, and the design is top notch.

I have been pondering a horse-bow (must be the Arab in me) since maybe March, and I have gone through builds in my mind over and again. Most of which revolve around the attachment of the Siyahs to the limbs. My question to you is this:

Did you use any tenon and lap joints under that perfectly wound binding, or is it all butt jointed? In my mind's eye, I see a tenoned siyah acting against a dadoed limb for my horsebow, but if the binding and glue are enough to about 60#'s, I can avoid (even though I bet it would look bad aze) the elaborate jointery.

Only other question I have is how do you get such a great looking binding bro? Is that leather or hemp or what? Do you dye your glue? Can you dye your glue? Do you just use that TBIII and water mix I've heard you mention?

Freakin gorgeous bow. Can't wait to see her finished. Your brother comes from a great family from what I can tell, may he have many dawn to dusk's with that bow. And if he lets you come along, you too!

i love it too , and judging by those thread wraps , id say you have done a little fly tying ....


awesome , never got the whole siyah thing , but i love that...


-hov

Ha ha!  Yes, Hova...I tie all of my own flies.       Good guess!

4est, Do you have any dimensions for the bow that you can share with the rest of us? I would like to try to build one like it.
Chris

Here's some finished pictures of the bow.  I'll post some finished specs when I have time. Ended up with 1/8" positive tiller, which was just right at full draw (see pic in first post).  I made the arrows to get him completely outfitted.  They're tipped with 125gr/ Zwickeys. Thanks for looking!

Absolutely stunning 4est. I really like osage, and you do it more than justice.

great work!!!!!!

A few more pictures:

Great looking bow 4est

Excellent job 4est!

I can look at that thing all day long.....