Apologies to you who have seen this on another forum...

This bow is made from a billet from a healthy tree joined to a billet from a tree that was about 1/3 dead. Both billlets are kind of snakey and they are joined by a steel sleeve. The bow is a takedown with the billet ends epoxied in. The inside of one end of the sleeve was coated with wax to make it possible to remove it after the epoxy cured. I have made four or five bows that way and like the results.

The bow is 66" ntn and pulls 43# at 28 inches. Very nice to shoot and the only thing it does is propel the arrow. :)

I like simplicity and rarely put overlays on tips. Don't need them.

As for the bare round handle, sometimes I wrap in leather, but it doesn't make the bow shoot any better, so usually not. (I admit to liking the look of leather.

Think about this: With a round handle, the string cannot be off the center. The handle simply rotates to the balance point. Run that around in your head a while. Draw pictures if you have to. I like round handles. So did archers for hundreds of years--or thousands.

Nice looking bow. I will never understand how some of you guys get a snakey looking bow like that to come out right.

Really Cool bow Jim. I guess your shooting it right off the knuckle?

-Bones

Easy questing first: Yes, I shoot all my self bows off the knuckle.

As for the snakeyness, I mark a centerline that follows the grain as closely as I can. Then I mark out the sides from that line. I made up a table of offsets for what would be a straight taper if the centerline were straight. I draw freehand lines to connect those offset points and cut it out.

It's really not hard to do. A parallell limb would be even easier to draw.

This one is a straight taper on the width and one thickness from fade to tip. I used a caliper to check the thickness. The curve was just about right the first time I checked it--which was at brace height immediately after floor tillering.

The sides are curvy, but the taper is uniform. I believe "pyramid" bows are by far the easiest to make and least likely to be messed up on the making.

Jim, the string and handle centerline can be off regardless of handle shape. As a matter of fact, if the handle rotates in the hand as the string is drawn, that's an almost certain giveaway that the string has parted ways with the handle center. Sometimes it's not a big deal, and sometimes it can make tuning and shooting a real pain in the butt... or forearm.

Nice job Jim, I need to build a takedown!

Jeff, my point is that the round handle will rotate to where the string is. You just shoot it that way, it won't rotate back during the shot. The string and handle will work to find equilibrium.

If you don't GRIP the handle, as I don't, everything takes care of itself.

If you balance the handle on a board edge or something that can stand the pull, you will find that the handle finds its "center" as soon as the draw begins and holds that center to full draw and if the string is let down slowly enough to observe, the handle will be seen to hold its center then too.

I am trying to wrap my head around this center line thing. Jim it does seem to me that if the round handle rotated, the string would have to be on the center line of the handle. Jeff if it rotated and is on center line of the handle then it looks like it would be off center line of the limbs. Is that what your guys are saying? Thanks. Ken

If you have a bow that has the string off center of the handle, clamp a strong board in a vice and try my illustration. If the handle is deep, it might not do as well, but I think it will still pretty much stay in the position it assumes at the start of the draw.

It certainly can move during the shot.

If the unbraced bow, with a weighted string pulled taut from tip to tip bisects the handle along its centerline, but the bowstring leaves the handle by the time it reaches brace height, its limb, or limbs, are bending to the side as they're flexed and aren't yet done trying to... and will continue trying to as the limbs are bent farther... and allowing it to turn in the hand will enable it to do so(I'm not saying we should try to stop it). Upon release it's going to try to do the opposite. The momentum from that sideways movement can spin the bow right around in the hand's loose grip. That tells me the string is moving laterally, relative to the grip as the string falls.

In my opinion, the effects are that these bows are harder to tune, harder to match arrows to, less efficient, and harder to be consistent with. I have some that I do enjoy shooting though :^)

Good looking bow.

Jim can you elaborate on the sleeve I need to join billets

I think what Jim is saying is if you are holding the bow cocked to the side when you start the draw the round handle will rotate to the correct position in your hand so it will be in alignmenmt with the string and not be torqued to one side.Jim does that sound right?

Jim, it may not 'appear' to get worse as the draw is completed due to the force we apply in the direction of the drawn string, but I think we're loading the limbs with lateral energy as the draw opposes their lateral tendency, which they will expel on the arrow, bow, and us on release.

Shifty, yes.

Jeff, you are talking from a theoretical view. Try it with a board in a vice as I said. If the limbs are twisted, the misalignment might change during the draw, but if the string is just off to the side, it will line up and stay there during the draw.

I went to the shop and tried the vice/board/draw and the result was as I said. The handle did not turn during the draw or let down.

Nicely done Jim. The snakey ones are a challenge and lots of fun all rolled into one. Kudos.

Nice one Jim

Like it!

I like it Jim. Good wedding present. Something old and something new. Arvin

Very nice.

Very unique and nice!

Coco,

Sorry I didn't answer your question sooner about the sleeve joint.

I don't use an inner sleeve, just make the wood a nice push fit, coat it with epoxy and push it in. That's for the first limb. For the second, after the first epoxy has cured, I coat the inside of second end of the sleeve with wax, then epoxy the second limb in. I do line up the limbs rotationally so that if the wax doesn't let go easily, I can shoot the bow until it does.

I pin the fixed end with a round-headed brad and put a light mark in the other end of the sleeve and the base of that limb with a cold chisel to register the limb when reinstalling it.

That is one sharp looking bow there Jim!

sweet!

Jim is that a piece of conduit

The sleeve is made from DOM (drawn over mandrel) seamless mild steel. I order lengths from Speedy Metals (no connection to me). The shipping is more than the cost of the tubing. I cut them to length in my metal lathe, but a hacksaw and file could do a good job.

Man Jim that looks awesome great job on that one. I really like all the character in that one.

very nice.

very nice.

Very nice bow. Nicely done Jim.

Thanks Jim I like that bow

Stunning! Excellent tiller, my friend. Jawge

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here