Meet "Out of the Closet"

Old Phartt's Archery #8

66" 32@25


For bow #8 I had planned to do something with walnut and maple. However, while I was sorting through lumber at the local Rockler's, I came on several very figured aromatic cedar boards... beautiful reds and mixed in light swirls. One of my favorite Hills has always been the juniper Cheetah, and the cedar looked like the juniper and is in fact a closely related wood. A plank came home with me for $14. From it I was able to resaw 12 "slabs", the basis for finished laminations. Four of the slabs looked particularly good, the rest so-so.




Since the principle use of aromatic cedar is as closet lining, and since these pieces will not meet that fate but will instead become an actively used bow, it seemed appropriate to name it "Out of the Closet".

Construction of Out of the Closet was went very well. The lamination was somewhat different from previous bows in that while I favor the practice of keeping all lams forward of the riser, so that they work in a group, in this case, if you note slab set 2 above, you will see that it has two beautiful knots where the riser and or grip wrap would be. I decided that I would grind these two lams very thin and bring them up the belly riser for maximum effect. Since I was essentially copying a Hill Cheetah, I used bamboo for the core. In this case, it was actually lamboo milled from vertical laminated bamboo flooring.

The actual final layup was: .080 clear glass, .060 cedar parallel, .103 lamboo parallel, .103 lamboo tapered .0015, .042 cedar parallel, .080 clear glass. Total stack: .388. Riser is 16" walnut.

The bow came off the form and pattern grinding (I ground the shape with the 6 x 80 belt sander rather than bandsawing it) at 35@28.I wanted a bit more than that for draw since I was shooting for a finished weight of 33@25. I also prefer a 66" bow, so a "tipectomy" was performed, leaving it at 40@28 and 35@25 (my draw). I knew it would lose a bit more in the finishing, so that was it. Two days of final sanding and a TruOil finish produced the bow below... 38@28 and 32@25... dead on perfect for me and only a pound off of my original target. The power curve is an absolutely smooth progressio all the way out to 30". It seems very forgiving of a wide range of arrows, from 306 grain aluminun 1616, to 400 gr. 1716, to 460 grain woodies. The 1616's work out to 9.6 grains per pound, and went through my chrono from a hand release very consistently in the mid-140's. I didn't do it, but if I snuck one of my 1516's in there I'm sure it would crack 150 :^). With my draw, mid-150's is the highest speed I've ever gotten from any bow from a hand release.



"Out of the Closet"




Strung shape. Unstrung is not quite dead flat... 1/2" of string follow.




This is why I was excited by the cedar board...




Walnut riser, beige leather wrap, though it looks white in  the bright sunlight.




Old Phartt's Archery #8
Hill Style
66"
38@28
(as noted, it's 32@25)
Also, note one of the knots I saved




Here's the other knot I went to some effort to end up having on the fades. I just caught the edge of it, but it's nice grain.




It shoots. This is two groups of three shots at 20 yards. I shot the top group, then a fire engine came and parked in front of our house, with much noise. Of course, I had to go out and see what was going on, which turned out to be just a hydrant pressure check. I went back to the back yard and then shot the other three arrows, which are the lower group.




#30 yards, first effort, with 460 gr. arrows... You're looking at three shots low, two a little higher but left, then two kill zones. This bow shoots and likes heavy arrows. There is absolutely no hand vibration; it's totally smooth in draw and and release.


There you have it, Out of the Closet, my Bow #8...  the best I've done yet.

Captain Dick
The Old Phartt

Great Job,really like the look of Cedar.      

Yea you did good and she is a looker

That is amazing cedar...the grain above the specs is really nice.

Josh

God looking bow there Dick!
Denny

Dick's "out of the closet"  vs  my bow "Stuck in the bathroom" at the Medical Lake tournament. Come one come all to the great shoot out-----Dan Berry    (nice work Dick)  

Thanks, Dan... and I do plan to be at Medical Lake, so see you there.

Yikes, sorry!   Don't know if anyone actually caught it, but I have a major error in the initial post.    the formula should read .040 glass, not .080 glass.   .080 is actually the total glass, both pieces.    I can only say I started work yesterday at 6:45 am and was still up at 12:45 am watching the oven for the bow that's currently in it.  I don't think anyone even offers .080 glass... frightening thought!

That's a beauty, Dick. Congratulations!

Well done!!!

Those lams are gorgeous!  What a beauty!

Claudia

awesome color on that bow dick! absolutely beautiful.

Excellent DW. Cedar is mt favorite wood because of the smell & colors.

Great looking bow, but the name is a little too California for me.

Great job Dick! Your starting to show us Folks some amazing talent there. I really like Cedar for veneers too.

Dick , ya done good there buddy!!  

Nice job Dick. That cedar looks awsome!!!