New wych elm bow

[dwardo]

Ayup all,

I have been trying to finish this bow for a while but with work n life its took a lot longer than usual. The bow is finaly finished besides my makers mark and the stats penned on the lower limb. I get a good friend to do the pen work as my handwriting wouldnt even pass for a doctors prescription.

Its braced a little high but its the only string i have to hand. Its shoots very smooth and accurate, my bunny target at the end of the garden is having a hard time

Its about 50lbs or so, maybe a bit more as the length of the bow Helps the draw.
Its made from wych elm (ulmus glabra) Elm has been hard to judge in regards to the ammount of mass for the weight. The first bow ended up very light at around 38lbs or so which was a surprise. I do like working with elm but its a dog for pulling up grain on the draw knife. It starts out like a ragnail that when you pull it doesnt stop until your arm pit Elm however does seem to like heat treating and steaming out string problems.

 

[caliban]

Now that's a beauty. Why on earth would anyone want to shoot a compound when they could shoot something like that?

 

[dwardo]

Now that's a beauty. Why on earth would anyone want to shoot a compound when they could shoot something like that?

Cheers caliban

 

[jon r]

Looks like you got a lovely bow there... do you have a picture of the bow from further back so i can see the limbs bending? The finish on that wood looks nice too... lovely grain

 

[dwardo]

Looks like you got a lovely bow there... do you have a picture of the bow from further back so i can see the limbs bending? The finish on that wood looks nice too... lovely grain

I only have one full draw pic at the moment, please excuse ciggie in mouth and dodgy stance, there aint much room in my garage

 

[jon r]

hehe, tiller looks pretty good from what i can see

 

[stovie]

Get that ciggie any closer to the string and you'll have a major disaster on your hands...
Looks excellent. well done

 

[dwardo]

Get that ciggie any closer to the string and you'll have a major disaster on your hands...
Looks excellent. well done

Yeah, like ciggies are bad enough for you already wasnt lit at the time though

hehe, tiller looks pretty good from what i can see

It was a bit stiff in the last third of the top limb so i scraped a little before finishing it up. Its very smooth to draw and loose but i think thats down to the length.

 

[Grooveski]

That's a beauty!

 

[watercress]

Now that's a beauty. Why on earth would anyone want to shoot a compound when they could shoot something like that?

Ditto to that. Nothing beats a hand made Bow. Cheers

 

[elma]

excellent workmanship mate well done

 

[badgeringtim]

Thats a real beuty!

So the belly i can see there is the outer layer of the tree - literally just under the bark from the look of it?

Also how big a tree did you start off with?

Still want to try my hand making a bow....

 

[dwardo]

The top picture is the back of the bow which still has some of the cambium left on it which gives it the darker colour, this cambuim layer is just under the bark. So the back of the bow is just de-barked and the belly of the bow is where you remove wood to tiller.

This tree was quite large around a foot across but most of my bows are made of a lot smaller diameter stock.

 

[dwardo]

I agree - it is a beauty but as the question re: compound bow..... in a word "power"!
something that gives you a little over 320fps can't be bad!

I nearly took the bait then but thats an argument for a campfire and a bottle of rum..

 

[Bushcraftsman]

Excellent work! looks really nice...great finish. Thanks for sharing