Review: "Elfin" Rattan Recurve by Bows of the Risen Son
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 10:21 pm
I was skeptical, but sufficiently interested when Eothain posted photos of his freshly re-vamped kit a few months back, and the photos included a Rattan recurve bow. It was absolutely lovely, and quite short, which piqued my interest. I have a long-abiding and uncompromising love for short bows, and his, particularly a photo of it drawn, was rather lovely. It reminded me sharply of the bows carried by the Rohirrim in the New Line trilogy, which seem to rarely get discussed, but have always held my attention.
You know...'cause they're short.
I had long since given up my hope that I could find a bow that was close to theirs, however, because theirs were made of injection-molded rubber, and I had not yet found a bow that could hold poundage, come to full draw, and not explode at those lengths. At least, not without fiberglass and a good deal of prayer.
And now here we are, with something that claims to fulfill the bulk of these requirements.
Manufacturer: Bow of the Risen Son, LLC.
Model: "Elfin" Recurve
Specs: 51" nock-to-nock, 50# draw @ 28"
Material(s): Rattan, Leather Grip Wrap, Paracord
Cost: $100+S&H
Store:http://bowsoftherisenson.maxgroupbiz.com/
Alright, for starters, I'm not going to lie...I was a little put off by the spelling of "Elfin". Not sure if that was done this way due to fear of copyright or something else, but when compared to Tolkien's comments on why he writes Dwarvish instead of Dwarfish, and similar things, I get the feeling that "Elfin" instead of Elven" denotes Santa Claus-type "Elfs", rather than the bow-toting tall-and-fair fantasy Elves we all know and love. Little bit confusing, but, well...the bow can stand independent of its name. Moving on.
I emailed rather extensively with BOTRS before ordering, and was assured of three things: 1) It won't explode, even at 50# (something I was very skeptical about), 2) Yes, we have customers that still use theirs after 8+ years, and 3) Yes, we take paypal.
That was enough to justify the $100. I've paid way more for bows, so it could be worse. Heck, I've paid more than that for a dozen arrows. Not doing that again.
When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. This bow is lovely! Bamboo as a backing material isn't at all uncommon, but the somewhat vague photos on their website didn't show what I discovered when the box was opened. The outer rind and nodes of the rattan are on the BELLY of the bow, not the back. This bow is tillered backwards! All of the work was done on the back, and the raw exterior of the rattan faces the user. VERY interesting, and quite unique. The nocks are nicely carved, though a little rough. I've found no noticeable twist in the limbs.
Now we start getting to some oddities.
The string is paracord, and they don't try to hide it. It's army green paracord, tied in knots on both ends. Does it function? Sure. Is it ugly? Yyyyep.
Still, at the price they sell these bows, it probably wouldn't be economical for them to try to hand-wind a flemish-twist string for every bow they sell, so I can't really blame them. An easy fix, that'll improve performance a bit...replace it with a real string.
On to the grip. The grip area is slightly narrower than the limbs, but the bow flexes straight through the grip area...no stiffened riser section here. I was pleased by this...shorter bows that don't bend through the grip tend to stack...too short of a working limb. HOWEVER: the grip itself is wrapped, not stitched on. It's a 1" thick strip of leather that spirals up. This creates an uneven grip surface that makes consistent hand placement a bit of an issue. Since there's no shelf, shooting off the hand is expected, and if you can't count on your hand placement to remain consistent, you can't count on your "shelf" to be consistent, ergo your shots won't be either. I'd call this another allowance due to the cheap initial cost of the bow...but I wouldn't recommend you leave it as is.
The tiller is nice and even, overall, with only one minor, barely noticeable flaw...there's a hint of the beginnings of a hinge on the lower limb (left) seen here, but I haven't seen any problems from it, and no materials lifting off the back from it. That being said, the back IS fuzzy in a few places, as several on the forum here have mentioned. That being said, a quick polish (NOT heavy sanding) with some 5-600 grit paper should smooth these out, and a nice thick lacquer should hold it all down. I'm not at all concerned.
The draw is very smooth...far better than I could have expected for so short a bow at this poundage. The recurves are a working part of the limb and they flex very nicely. The draw starts with a good presence of initial weight, and then maintains this and grows all the way back to anchor...no let-off at the back end, but no easing up towards the front, which is a notorious cause of low arrow speed in "fantasy" bows.
Now that we've got all of that out of the way, I let go of an arrow, and nearly soiled myself. This little bow's a nail-driver! Got my foam block rocking on its hind legs a few times...I'm very pleased. I would have no moral issue with shooting this at live game...it has the power to do it.
Bows of the Risen Son provided me with some excellent communication and customer service during this transaction. They even went so far as to remember an early request I'd made, to send me a few small scraps of Rattan so I could color-test some stains before I start working on the bow itself. Something they really should advertise better is that their bows all apparently ship with three arrows...I had no idea. Granted, they are clearly lightweight youth arrows, with plastic nocks, short fletchings, and not something I would shoot out of a 50 lb bow, but they're there, included, and completely unexpected. Nice gesture...and I needed a few for something else anyway!
To sum it all up:
Pros:
CHEAP!
SHORT!
Gorgeous lines/overall shape
Fits well within Middle-Earth in more than one culture, with the right work
Smooth Draw
Solid Arrow Speed
Highly Customizable
Cons:
String is not appropriate
Grip could be re-done for better performance
Overall, bow kinda requires customization to really look nice
I would DEFINITELY call this one a win, and will detail my own customization process in another thread.
You know...'cause they're short.
I had long since given up my hope that I could find a bow that was close to theirs, however, because theirs were made of injection-molded rubber, and I had not yet found a bow that could hold poundage, come to full draw, and not explode at those lengths. At least, not without fiberglass and a good deal of prayer.
And now here we are, with something that claims to fulfill the bulk of these requirements.
Manufacturer: Bow of the Risen Son, LLC.
Model: "Elfin" Recurve
Specs: 51" nock-to-nock, 50# draw @ 28"
Material(s): Rattan, Leather Grip Wrap, Paracord
Cost: $100+S&H
Store:http://bowsoftherisenson.maxgroupbiz.com/
Alright, for starters, I'm not going to lie...I was a little put off by the spelling of "Elfin". Not sure if that was done this way due to fear of copyright or something else, but when compared to Tolkien's comments on why he writes Dwarvish instead of Dwarfish, and similar things, I get the feeling that "Elfin" instead of Elven" denotes Santa Claus-type "Elfs", rather than the bow-toting tall-and-fair fantasy Elves we all know and love. Little bit confusing, but, well...the bow can stand independent of its name. Moving on.
I emailed rather extensively with BOTRS before ordering, and was assured of three things: 1) It won't explode, even at 50# (something I was very skeptical about), 2) Yes, we have customers that still use theirs after 8+ years, and 3) Yes, we take paypal.
That was enough to justify the $100. I've paid way more for bows, so it could be worse. Heck, I've paid more than that for a dozen arrows. Not doing that again.
When it arrived, I was pleasantly surprised. This bow is lovely! Bamboo as a backing material isn't at all uncommon, but the somewhat vague photos on their website didn't show what I discovered when the box was opened. The outer rind and nodes of the rattan are on the BELLY of the bow, not the back. This bow is tillered backwards! All of the work was done on the back, and the raw exterior of the rattan faces the user. VERY interesting, and quite unique. The nocks are nicely carved, though a little rough. I've found no noticeable twist in the limbs.
Now we start getting to some oddities.
The string is paracord, and they don't try to hide it. It's army green paracord, tied in knots on both ends. Does it function? Sure. Is it ugly? Yyyyep.
Still, at the price they sell these bows, it probably wouldn't be economical for them to try to hand-wind a flemish-twist string for every bow they sell, so I can't really blame them. An easy fix, that'll improve performance a bit...replace it with a real string.
On to the grip. The grip area is slightly narrower than the limbs, but the bow flexes straight through the grip area...no stiffened riser section here. I was pleased by this...shorter bows that don't bend through the grip tend to stack...too short of a working limb. HOWEVER: the grip itself is wrapped, not stitched on. It's a 1" thick strip of leather that spirals up. This creates an uneven grip surface that makes consistent hand placement a bit of an issue. Since there's no shelf, shooting off the hand is expected, and if you can't count on your hand placement to remain consistent, you can't count on your "shelf" to be consistent, ergo your shots won't be either. I'd call this another allowance due to the cheap initial cost of the bow...but I wouldn't recommend you leave it as is.
The tiller is nice and even, overall, with only one minor, barely noticeable flaw...there's a hint of the beginnings of a hinge on the lower limb (left) seen here, but I haven't seen any problems from it, and no materials lifting off the back from it. That being said, the back IS fuzzy in a few places, as several on the forum here have mentioned. That being said, a quick polish (NOT heavy sanding) with some 5-600 grit paper should smooth these out, and a nice thick lacquer should hold it all down. I'm not at all concerned.
The draw is very smooth...far better than I could have expected for so short a bow at this poundage. The recurves are a working part of the limb and they flex very nicely. The draw starts with a good presence of initial weight, and then maintains this and grows all the way back to anchor...no let-off at the back end, but no easing up towards the front, which is a notorious cause of low arrow speed in "fantasy" bows.
Now that we've got all of that out of the way, I let go of an arrow, and nearly soiled myself. This little bow's a nail-driver! Got my foam block rocking on its hind legs a few times...I'm very pleased. I would have no moral issue with shooting this at live game...it has the power to do it.
Bows of the Risen Son provided me with some excellent communication and customer service during this transaction. They even went so far as to remember an early request I'd made, to send me a few small scraps of Rattan so I could color-test some stains before I start working on the bow itself. Something they really should advertise better is that their bows all apparently ship with three arrows...I had no idea. Granted, they are clearly lightweight youth arrows, with plastic nocks, short fletchings, and not something I would shoot out of a 50 lb bow, but they're there, included, and completely unexpected. Nice gesture...and I needed a few for something else anyway!
To sum it all up:
Pros:
CHEAP!
SHORT!
Gorgeous lines/overall shape
Fits well within Middle-Earth in more than one culture, with the right work
Smooth Draw
Solid Arrow Speed
Highly Customizable
Cons:
String is not appropriate
Grip could be re-done for better performance
Overall, bow kinda requires customization to really look nice
I would DEFINITELY call this one a win, and will detail my own customization process in another thread.