All-wood bows: let's see 'em

[David Petersen]

#2651

I didn’t want to shift the focus away from Troy’s gorgeous bow in his “Pushing the limits” thread, yet it gave me an urge to see the all-wood bows others here have made. I made at least three dozen before giving it up, largely due to the time away from work and lack of proper shop space, but also because I ran out of ideas to try for shorter bows I felt good about hunting elk with and could comfortably draw. But again, it’s process over product in many of the best parts of life, and I sure miss the building part.

Anyhow I’ll start the bidding with these pics of one of my typical all-wood deflex-reflex bows of osage, this one backed with pignut hickory. They all shot beautifully. I no longer have a single one left, though several are out there somewhere.

[David Petersen]

#11661

This one, same bow, is 60″ and 54#

[Troy Breeding]

#11846

Guess this means I have to lay out afew and grab the camera again. I may only shoot glass bow for now, but I still have abunch in the socks.

Troy

[Alexandre Bugnon]

#11871

My Osage self bow with Kudu tips and shelf, beaver grip 60″ 63#@28″

(Edit: Sorry, I just now read that it had to be a self-made bow. I didn’t make this one, of course 🙂 )

[Jason Wesbrock]

#11909

Alex,

Is that the one Paul Brunner made?

[Troy Breeding]

#11930

Dug out the camera, layed out afew bows and started snapping pics. Most of these bows havn’t been strung in over 10 years. Some I doubt I could string. Since shoulder surgery I most likely would have to reduce the weight on most to be able to shoot.

After laying out on the floor.

Decided they would look better standing against the wall.

These two are the ones I’d have a super hard time parting with. The top one is osage with a takedown sleeve, sinew backing and banded water snakes over the sinew. Sorry for the shakey pic.

The bottom is my hickory recurve with pararie rattler skins.

The osage bow pulls 72# at 28″ and the hickory recurve pulls 68# @28″.. Way more than my ol’ body can handle now.

Afew of the other snake skined bows.

I even have one hickory backed lemonwood English longbow with cow horn tips.

And that doesn’t count the glass bows I have. Dang, I think I’m bow poor!!!:D:D:D

Now you see why my wife always ask if I’m building another for myself or someone else.. That’s usually followed by “Honestly,,you don’t really think you need another one do you”

Troy

[Troy Breeding]

#11931

Forgot to add, this doesn’t even count the bows my wife has.

Troy

[Troy Breeding]

#11946

I can’t believe it. While putting up the selfbows I found four more glass bows.

I better not hang any more up. Otherwise the wife is really going to have something to hang me with.:shock:

Troy

[Alexandre Bugnon]

#11989

J.Wesbrock wrote: Alex,

Is that the one Paul Brunner made?

Yes, Jason, it is. I will add a picture of the bow with his signature

[David Petersen]

#12030

Alex — I’ll exclusively hunt elk with my osage selfbow (built by Clay Hayes, not me) this year, if you’ll hunt with yours. It’s a dare! As if it’s not hard enough already. 😆

Troy– I am speechless. (Well, almost.) So many beauties! I really like what appears to be odd wood grain on the left bow in the top pic (second from left in second pic). Is that grain or something you did?

But you know, that many wood bows sitting around presents a huge fire risk; I’ll be if your home-owners insurance provider knew about them, your rates would go up. But more worrisome to me is that hoarding is a serious, very serious, mental illness. For your own psychological good my generous nature prompts me to suggest that you find personal salvation by sending a bunch of those suckers to me! :P:lol: Quick!

[Troy Breeding]

#12070

Dave,

That’s a Sweetgum bow. The dark spots are small patches of cambreian layer that I didn’t completely scrape off. It’s pretty light weight as well. If I remember right it only pulls 25#. I made that bow for the local kids to plink around with. Long and wide is what it takes to make a Sweetgum bow to remain straight.

I tried making several some what narrow and all took massive set after only afew shots. If I was going to make a bow in the 50# range it would need to be 3″ wide and atleast 70″ long. In short, a double ended boat paddle.

Just call me a bow hoarder. Maybe even a dooms day preper. With all the bows and arrows I have I think I could make a pretty long stand against the evil no gooders.

One other thing,,, you speechless??????:D:D

Troy

[Alexandre Bugnon]

#12157

@Troy: :shock::shock:

I am speechless!

[Alexandre Bugnon]

#12165

David Petersen wrote: Alex — I’ll exclusively hunt elk with my osage selfbow (built by Clay Hayes, not me) this year, if you’ll hunt with yours. It’s a dare! As if it’s not hard enough already. 😆 Quick!

I could do that. But first I need to find somebody around here who could take a look at the bow and tell me if the bow’s upper limb is warped a little/a lot and if it can be fixed. This happened, I suspect, back when I first got the bow, and was practicing a lot with it. I was holding the bow wrong, with the heel of my palm pressing the back of handle instead of slightly on the side. With repetition, it twisted the upper limb. THe same thing happened to my Yew bow, which I was shooting at the same time. Interesting, no ?

[David Petersen]

#12841

Troy — Indeed, the irony had occurred to me. 😆

[CareyE]

#13942

I’m very impressed Troy…that you r wife allows that!! Mine cannot understand why I need more than one and then I say the same of her shoes!

[Troy Breeding]

#14153

Mistake!!!! Never talk about the number of shoes a woman has.:D

Troy

[Ben M.]

#18428

I hadn’t looked at this thread until today. Don’t know why.

Troy, can you give some details about the bow that’s third from left on the floor picture? Which bow is it in the picture where they’re standing against the wall?

[Troy Breeding]

#18913

The third bow from the left in the floor pic is the one on the left when stood against the wall. It’s a bamboo backed osage bow that when backed was in a form that gave it the heavy reflex/deflex design. the same setup Dean Torges used to make his bows. It’s a fairly light weight bow. Something in the 25# range. My daughter used it when she was about 10-12 years old. I kept it just for that reason.

Troy

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