modern mendelbrot bow

[Stephen Graf]

#5363

I made an attempt at a osage/bamboo glass mendelbrot bow. I ended up redoing the ends of the limbs 3 times trying to get the best out of it. The riser overlay twice as well. So it’s a bit worse for wear.

And it turned out too light for me. It’s 45lb and shoots a 500 grn arrow about 150 fps.

I may do another to see if I can get better performance out of it. But it really shoots nice, and doesn’t have the hand shock I was expecting…

Here’s the riser with a home tanned deer skin grip:

Here’s the tip that ended up with some scrap bubinga on the 3rd try:

And here’s the bow strung:

[new moon]

#41550

Steve,
Great looking bow. I’m not familiar with the design. Where does it come from and what are the advantages of it?

Josh

[Stephen Graf]

#42517

I don’t know the exact history, other than it came from bows dug up from bogs in northern Europe.

The idea is that the tips are extra narrow and deep. This gives them more stiffness and less weight. Thus moving the bending part of the limb down toward the riser…

In my case, I ended up increasing the depth of the limb until the tips were stiff, but it added more wood than would have been there had I just done a normal tip.

For whitewood bows, the design probably does help achieve the best bow possible. For a glass laminated bow, it really didn’t help much. But it was a fun project. If the bow had turned out heavier, I would have used it for hunting.

I think the heavy tips might help stabilize the bow some. It really shoots well.

[David Petersen]

#45740

Nice craftsmanship, Steve. Indeed, an odd design that flies in the face of the standard wisdom that the less weight at limb tips, the better. Always fun to find new ways to skin an old cat. Thanks for sharing, dave

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