Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Looks amazing so far

Here we are, finally, at the end of the road. Or, rather, the first road.


Now I’m laying out and adjusting a string from both ends until there’s enough material down that line on both sides for the tapered edges of the eventual bow form. It’s a little tricky because the piece is curved...


...and because I have this one ‘whoops’ I have to dodge. Current placement looks like this will be shaved off when the edges are tapered in.

Great attention to detail. Looking forward to seeing the finished product and I know you will be proud!

I got my centerline marked in with string earlier this week, and marked in a grip-at-center and tip width straddling that centerline. Now I’ve got some glue setting on another project and can do some side tapering. It always amazes he how precisely one can work to an exact line using hand tools. I. Love. My. Plane.

Between planing on a few other pieces I’m not at liberty to share about, I got some significant shaping done on this guy. We’re taking the belly in and tapering towards the ends. At present, it has the SHAPE, at least, of a bow. Need to thin the center a bit more to get it bending there since this will have to be tillered full-compass, given how short the overall bow is. Still...it’s nice to finally be scraping away at something that looks like something other than a chunk of wood.

Nice work, It's looking good

Got her on the stick a few weeks ago:
Yesterday, the real progress happened. My goal was to hopefully get to 24" without an explosion.



THAT, right there, is a conservatively 26" full draw.

On to nocks, and finishing!

Very fine work. What’s it pulling poundage wise?

Haven't gotten it on a scale yet, but it's shooting ash shafts spined at 55# like lasers, so that's my ballpark.

Yes, I went ahead and shot it. 10" group at 20 yards after not shooting regularly for, oh, I don't know...a year? Form's imperfect, but the little bow's doing its job and it didn't blow up. Flight is fast and flat...couldn't be more pleased.

That's Amazing! Nice work

Greg wrote:Yes, I went ahead and shot it. 10" group at 20 yards after not shooting regularly for, oh, I don't know...a year?

I swear yew staves shoot smoother than any other other wood.

I can sympathize, indeed I’d be doing well to get a 10” grouping at this point. Its typically not until I’ve emptied my bag two or three times that I get dialed in.

Ursus wrote:

Greg wrote: I swear yew staves shoot smoother than any other other wood.

This sucker feels smoother in draw and release than my glass laminated recurve. I'm in heaven.

This week, we're taking the plunge and filing off the perfectly good ends of a functional bow and rolling the dice again to fit horn nocks. I seriously debated gluing on tip overlays instead of tapering the ends like this, but it's been done this way for nearly a thousand years...guess I oughta try.
The black junk on the tapered tip is sharpie marker...I colored in the inside of the drilled horn and spun it around on the tip, filing off what wood was marked until it was marked all the way around for a snug fit.

All that looks fantastic!

I love it when a long-time project is finally nearing completion: and this is such a grand one! Very cool.

Very much nearing completion. I cranked out these horn nocks today, and am mildly perturbed that I put the brownish one on the bottom. My logic was that it'd be getting stuck in the dirt more often than not, because, you know...brown...but then I liked how it turned out much better than the black one, which is on top. Oh well.

All in all, for my first ever pair of horn nocks, which were shaped in a single afternoon, I'm over-the-moon happy that they stayed on and I can still draw the bow without it exploding.