put a leather grip on my checkmate falcon today (pics)

[Romans3]

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I preffer to shoot with a grip so my sweating hands don't make it to slick. Just bought some leather at A. C. Moore and cut up an old sting for dacron to stitch it up!

[trapperDave]

looks good  

[ToxophilitePastor]

Good Job Bud!

[caleb7mm]

I like it! thinking about doing the same to one of my martins

[madness522]

Nice job Nathan!

[Toklat1]

THAT, looks really nice. I have been trying to put one on my Howatt Mamba.  Still trying. You did a nice job!

[Jedimaster]

Good job!

[Romans3]

toklat1,

from the little experience I have, it's all about getting the right type of leather. This was my second try on this bow. The first piece of leather I had was not soft or stretchy enough. It's tough to do a good job on a recurve handle.

[DannyBows]

That looks great, nice looking bow too. I did two of my longbow handles recently with some really cool looking Alligator Embossed leather I got off the auction site awhile back. They look pretty good, need to get pics of them. I have a new Great Plains recurve I want to do, but with the curves involved it's going to be much harder. I reckon it will be a good late winter project. I might just make a saddle for it as I do kind of hate to hide the great grain in the Bocote.

[The Baron]

Looks great.  Nice job.

[DeerSpotter]

Nathan, I just put up a thread asking how the performance of the checkmate falcon bow is.


How is the smoothness of the draw ?  Quietness ?  And accuracy ?

That leather grip looks cool, I'd like to try a braided one


Carl

[Ssamac]

How do you get the leather to shape to the curves. I have a Wing Falcon I'd like to put leather on the grip but it's really curved. A lot like yours.

sam

[Romans3]

carl, I just posted on your thread... the bow is smooth and accurate, it is not the quietest bow without silencers, BUT terry green's bow hush and hush puppies did the trick. I love it.

[Romans3]

SAM, I think the key to getting the leather to conform to the curvy handle is getting the right kind of leather. There may be more to it, I don't have much experience with it. This was my first try. I bought some leather at AC Moore and couldn't get it to work. I tried a lot of different things, but just couldn't get it to conform to the curves. I just decided that I needed a softer, more flexible, leather. I went back to AC Moore and picked out a different piece and it worked great. I didn't have to do anything special. Just got some leather that would stretch and form to the handle and it worked pretty well. Hope that helps.

[Ssamac]

It does. I think I can use an old pair of kid gloves on mine. That would be beautiful, soft and pliable. And a pair of Mom's old gloves would give me about 3 grips.I'll let you know how it works. Did you cut the seam clean and flush or did you double it over to reinforce it?

sam

[Romans3]

sam, i did not double it over.