well lets plan a trip- i have some friends with farms- and they can direct us to crown land too.
maybe next summer- with all the hunting planned for this year.-  as i think spring time with the fresh buds is the best time- sap is up- but no new soft layer laid down yet

Guys, if you're going to be in Southern Ontario and you need to buy wood, I can direct you to one or two good suppliers.
Dave.

sounds awesome dave- i will pm you
thanks

here's how far i have got.
 
got her worked down to the lines- with a little lube!

 
drilled, then dremmeled and sanded out the loose knot- it didnt go right through the limb- stopped right up against the sapwood.

 
inorder to get the plug to be an exact fit- as it was a blind hole- i pressed in some pasticine, and used it as a template to sand by hand an Ipe plug.

 
plug glued in with my favourite- urac!!

 
heres what the ling cod skins look like that i prepped today- might just use them on this bow- they really look cool!

Looks petty sweet Wayne. Except for that muk in a bottle.  Where's the crown? At least segrams?  

Wow! I love those skins! That is going to look sooo cool!
Dave.

Very neat skins fujimo.

Nice Wayne, you need my mailing address or you already have it?

thanks guys we will see how they change as they dry, i suspect they will darken and dull a little- but the finish will bring some of it out again.
yup got your address Roy- shouldnt cost too much to send you a 6 pack of the "mothers milk"!- but beware it has a tendancy to turn ya into a belligerant soccer hooligan!

Here's some progress on the riser I've been working on- the limbs are still being tweeked...

Looks great Wayne...  have you used the Ling skins before? That's a fish we catch on a regular basis here but it's tough to get a legal 24 plus fish but every once in a while a three footer hits the deck    

I can't wait to see what those look like when you finish!!!  Great colors I hope they hold!!

Have you tried any of the rockfish skins? Like barber poles or reds?

No sissy beer for you Canada boys, only thing missing from that pic is a good cigar  


That riser looks GREAT David !!!

hey David,no size restriction on the ling cod here- just a daily limit- which i sometimes think is better- for the fish that is!
the cod skins are sure thicker and tougher than the halibut- the halibut seem to have come out real dark- but i will see how they turn out.
we gotta use fish skins up here- no snakes up here!!- one day i would like to get hold of some snake skins.
havent tried the other fish skins you mention- but am on the lookout for them nowdays.
i am probably going to use some dogfish( shark!!) skin for the handle- would like to try a full sharkskin backing for a backed bow.- i have some yew heartwood that i might make some backed bows with- some with hickory , and at least one with sharkskin!wayne.

I'd love to see a sharkskin backed bow. Maybe you could use a Great White tooth as a broadhead to go with it.
Dave.

Below is a pict of my trade bow at full draw (HHB 52#at 28").  I think I'm good with the tiller...always nice to have extra eyes on the tiller tree for advice...!  My target weight is 45-50# so I have a little wiggle room.  I hope to clean up the handle a bit shoot it a bunch and do the final finish work.  I may either go with a leather rest (I like to crease the leather in a vice and add a couple drops of super glue to set the 90 degree bend) or a deer toe...just finished two bows using a toe bone as a rest and they turned out real cool!  I plan to seal the wood with Tung oil and wrap the handle in leather.  I'm contemplating adding some chestnut to the tips (chestnut is in the sample tree family as HHB and though the light/dark contrast may look pretty nice...will also help mesh with the color of the leather I use for the handle.

 

I could not resist including a couple picts of my children at a shoot we attended this past weekend.  Both Colton and Carly helped make their own arrows and bows (Colton (8 yrs old) made self nocks arrows and backed his hickory with sinew – Carly (6 yrs old) backed her hickory with natural linen (and painted some leaf patterns...she named her bow "Forest")).

 

 

 

 

The photos above appear larger than I thought...please let me know if I need to resize further.  Thanks!

dinorocks, Hmmmmmmm 45-50# whose spec's are those, me!!!!

Looks real good    


Some of the guys I know around here fish Leopard Sharks of the rocks at the harbor mouth. I wonder how thick their skins are? Really cool looking fish      

We have Great Whites here. We are on the end of what is reffered to as blood alley but I can't imagine that skin being used other than a handle wrap?

  http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=55

Those leopard sharks are beautiful. Is it possible to get skins?
Dave.

Fujimo,  Ihave done several Ling cod skinned bows. It makes great backing and is tough howevere the color will fade considerably when dried. I have had some that were beautiful but when dried all you could see was the grayish brown.

Kip, I would also like to know if the lepard shark skin is abtainable

Check out this Coopers Hawk that was having lunch outside my sons bedroom window this weekend.
 

 

 

And here are a few pictures of my current hackberry selfbow project that may be my trade bow. Pre and post stain. Weighs in at 47# @ 28'' which falls right in with many TG trade members requested weight ranges and is 66'' overall and 65'' NTN. This bow had natural set of 1/2'' before tillering and it always comes back to 1 1/4'' total set after a short rest. Its shooting very nicely now    

 

 

 

 

Well done SportHunter...Those flipped tips look great and I like the dark stain too.

Great looking bows everybody.  I've got two more blanks glued up.  Gonna see I can get one to survive.

Very nice Paul....