Yea,,, I know I'm pushing the limits

[Troy Breeding]

#2646

Several years ago I started a new style bow. When I had it to the point I could really call a bow I carried to a local tournament just to see what kind of reaction I’d get.

When the club president came by, several of my buddies were giving it the once over. After a quick once over by him he stated ” I don’t know what you think your making, but I can’t allow it in the primitive class”……

Figuring it was going to cause alittle contraversy I just smiled and ask “why”.

With a stern look on his face he replied ” it would be an unfair advantage to the other shooters”.

Now, I was there when the wood and bamboo backed bows came into play. Yea, they really caused a big ruckus. Everyone clamed it gave too much advantage. Yet today they are as common as any other primitive bow.

Next came the three piece longbows. Yep, I was right there with one in hand and you would have thought I was commiting blastfimy… Still, today they too are common and any other.

Later came the influx of metal risers. Nope, never gave those much thought. Even though I have had one bow with a metal riser. It only took one hunting season of freezing my bow hand off to see they didn’t fit my cup of tea.

Still, you see them just about everywhere today……

Over the weekend I hung a new bow rack, while pulling bows out to hang I ran accross this bow. I’m thinking about finishing it and again seeing what kind of responce I get. If they say no, then I’ll just say “put me where you want”,, then write a “BIG O” on the score card and go have fun.

For some reason I always enjoy pushing the limits of anything.

Oh!!! One thing I forgot to mention. The limbs are wood only, no glass…. As a matter of fact the bow is made of nothing other than wood with the exceptions of the metal inserts, bolts and pins that hold the limbs on.

Troy

[Alexandre Bugnon]

#11570

Hi Troy

I’m not into 3-piece bows that much, but I have to admit that I find this one gorgeous! especially the slim, two-tone riser. Very cool!

How are the limbs made exactly? From the pic, it looks like vertically-stacked wood of some kind.

[Troy Breeding]

#11578

Alex,

They are nothing more than hickory laminations. Four of them in the working part of the limbs and one thin one on the bottom of the limb at the pads to add enough thickness to prevent flexing on the limb beds of the riser.

I used my three piece longbow form to lay them up.

I’ve strung this bow afew times and so far it’s holding the backset. Don’t know how well they will hold the set once I really start working on the limbs. They may hold and they may straighten out a bit.

Yea, it different…. But, I always like something different to what everyone else shoots.

Can’t ever tell, it may start a new trend.

Troy

[Ralph]

#11595

We’d still be using a bent branch strung with old Ug’s thong if it wasn’t for new ideas. I like it. I figure if people were primitive enough to be griping about primitive they wouldn’t be reading this. Be looking for smoke signals listening for drums beats on a log.

I think it’s a cool looking bow and cool idea.

[Troy Breeding]

#11609

R2 wrote: We’d still be using a bent branch strung with old Ug’s thong if it wasn’t for new ideas. I like it. I figure if people were primitive enough to be griping about primitive they wouldn’t be reading this. Be looking for smoke signals listening for drums beats on a log.

I think it’s a cool looking bow and cool idea.

Yea, when I showed it to Ug he said I could have his new string thong for it…:D:D:D

I think had I built it with the limbs butting together on the back of the riser, then reduced the length of the riser while keeping a straight back vs a deflexed back and used mortus and tinnen to hold the limbs to the riser it wouldn’t have caused such a stur. Maybe even shooting off the knuckle instead of cutting in a shelf and making it as plain as possible (no accents to the riser) it might have been excepted.

Still, then it wouldn’t look as good as it does.

Troy

[Ralph]

#11615

Ought to be allowed in the primitive composition class ya spose? It is composed right? Wood insert threaded to a wood screw. Challenge! 😆 . If I were to sleeve my boo backed Osage “Knight” bow into a 2 piece, would that make a new class?? ❓

I still like your idea.

[Troy Breeding]

#11645

The use of a metal takedown sleeve was ask by my buddies when the pres. made such a ruckus over the three piece.

He had no problem with the use of them in a bow.

Still I had to laugh…. Guess the fact that he and I were running neck and neck for the yearend awards had as much to do with his block of the bow as any.:D:D:D

Troy

[lyagooshka]

#11675

I have to be honest, I find beauty in simplicity, and that bow is just beautiful all around. I love to see the blood, sweat and tears that bowyers put into their work to make literal works of art {with a purpose}. But I am equally impressed with something that looks like it was just picked up from the woods and was shaped by nature in much the same way as a piece of glass can be rubbed smooth by the rolling waves over a period of time. Anyway, great looking bow. Be well.

Alex

8)

[Ben M.]

#11994

It’s pretty, Troy. Real pretty. Are the riser accents inlays or overlays?

A buddy of mine is just about finished with a tri-lam one piece reflex-deflex. He took a planer to the belly just before he was done tillering (may have been a little happy on the sauce) and brought it from ~60lbs to finish out at ~40lbs. Damn! Still, it’s a smooth-drawing bow.

[Troy Breeding]

#12180

Prairie Prowler wrote: It’s pretty, Troy. Real pretty. Are the riser accents inlays or overlays?

A buddy of mine is just about finished with a tri-lam one piece reflex-deflex. He took a planer to the belly just before he was done tillering (may have been a little happy on the sauce) and brought it from ~60lbs to finish out at ~40lbs. Damn! Still, it’s a smooth-drawing bow.

Ben,

Those aren’t inlays or overlays, pierce points run angled thur the riser. It’s kinda like a finger joint on both sides of the dark piece. I finger jointed the hickory and the walnut. Glued them together, then fingered jointed the walnut on the other side and the next piece of hickory. After all the joints are glued together the block has to be big enough to turn on an angle and resquare the block again. It’s kind of hard to see, but if you look at the off side of the riser you will see the points on the lower end. then they run angled thru the riser and out of the sight window side on the upper end.

Troy

[mhay]

#12198

THAT’S PERTY,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,WHERE IS qUINCY OHIO ?

[Troy Breeding]

#12205

mhay wrote: THAT’S PERTY,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,WHERE IS qUINCY OHIO ?

mhay,

Quincy is east of Sidney about 15 miles and southwest of Belfontaine about 15 miles.

Troy

[Troy Breeding]

#12217

Ben,

Hopefully this comes out right. Having alittle problem with the pics.

Anyway, this should give you a better idea of how the pierce points look in block form. Even though these are what I call my shockwave they are built the same way just a different bit in the jointer.

As you can see the points are on the left bottom.

Now they are coming up thru the block.

Then they come out on the right top.

[wahoo]

#12308

Man that bow is sweet. I would just shoot the shoot out of that thing and just do what you said. Nice job as always

[Stephen Graf]

#12669

Very nice Troy.

[David Coulter]

#12701

I really admire fine wood working, as Alex said, especially in something so useful as a bow.

I’d love to try something like that, but by the time I get the screws hammered in things are usually looking pretty sad… dwcphoto

[Troy Breeding]

#12779

I hear alot of fellows say they would like to build a bow, but just don’t have time or knowledge.

It’s not like you need 15 hours aday free time to do it. If you can free up 30 minutes aday you can build a bow. Maybe not as fast as those that do manage afew hours aday, but you can build one.

As for knowledge,,, In my book bow building is one of those things you only learn by doing. As with any hands on project you can’t learn how to do it all from books. Yes, you can get the basics but it takes hands on to really stick it in the ol’ hair covered computer.

I think back to the first bow I built. At the time I thought it was a sweet shooter. By the time I had it finished I thought it was the most beautiful bow on around. Today, I look back at it and often wonder how I managed to do so well with it.

A year or so ago I talked myself into stringing it up and shooting for awhile.

Dang!!! That thing almost jared my teeth out of my jaw.

Troy

[tombow]

#12825

Troy,

First: WOW! I too appreciate fine wood working. Put me on the list of “would like to build my own bow” guys. For me, the biggest mystery is the lay-up of laminations which result in cool patterns such as the “comb” pattern seen on your detailed limb pics, as well as the curved lines. I realize that it’s a matter of how the limbs are shaped out of the squared up laminations. Pictures just don’t give enough clues to figure what the original lamination sequence was vs. actually being able to have the bow in your hands, turning it over and see where the lamination lines go. For those of us who haven’t made the attempt at building our own and don’t have much wood working experience, we can be easily baffled.

You, sir, have some skills when it comes to building bows which are true functional works of art. Many would be proud to have that bow in their collection. It is interesting that it is unbacked, how is the performance, does it miss backing or do you notice anything lacking?

Again, love the looks of that bow.

[Ben M.]

#12832

Good grief Troy, that may be one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen. Just looking at the picture, I wasn’t at all expecting that detail to be so complicated. Very, very nice work. I am thoroughly impressed!

[Ben M.]

#12835

Man, I wish we lived closer to each other. I could see us hanging out & working on projects together all the time.

[skifrk]

#12940

Troy, you keep coming up with some amazing works of art. Enjoy them and the process of crating them

[Troy Breeding]

#13180

Thanks for kind words fellows. I’m no pro by any means. Just a good ol’ country boy that would rather build my own than buy.

Having local buddys come over and hang around building bows has been one of the things I’ve missed since moving to OH.

I did have one fellow contact me about bow parts and if I read his address correct he only lives about 5-6 miles away.

Guess I’m not used to having to invite a fellow Trad shooter over. Heck, when I lived in AL it wasn’t uncommon to have anywhere from 2 to 6 fellows hanging around either building or just seeing who could tell the biggest tail.

Think I’ll send that local fellow an invite and just let him know I ain’t short of talk if he wants to stop by sometime.

Troy

[Troy Breeding]

#13244

Ben,

Now I’m going to really blow your mind. I’ll show you the whole riser block with the Shockwave.

As you can see, there is more to that riser block than just the one Shockwave. In fact it really has three.

Troy

[Ben M.]

#13288

I see it! I see it! God help me it took awhile, but I see it now. Man, what a piece of work. That there is downright complicated. It’s the foresight that’s required to produce such beautiful art that makes it truly amazing.

Well done!

[Troy Breeding]

#13306

Think I’m going to make that riser into my next project.

I need another three piece longbow.:D

Troy

[Ben M.]

#13369

Troy Breeding wrote: Guess I’m not used to having to invite a fellow Trad shooter over. Heck, when I lived in AL it wasn’t uncommon to have anywhere from 2 to 6 fellows hanging around either building or just seeing who could tell the biggest tail.

Ya’ know man, don’t let that slide. You know I’m a stay-at-home dad and over the last 5 years I’ve just kind of drifted away from my buddies. I’m not saying anything against my (absolutely beloved) kids, but I’m starting to really miss my “guy time”. It’s been such a gradual transition that I didn’t notice it happening. A guy’s got to have his buddies!

[skifrk]

#15155

Troy, I still think the shockwave would look awesome as a lefty 🙂 Kidding. Anyway I would recommend getting to know some locals to have to talk to. That was the biggest downside to the part of Ohio my family lived in for a year was how hard it was to make friends as a kid.

[Troy Breeding]

#15191

Sent the fellow down the road an invite via e-mail return. He excepted and will be dropping by as soon as he gets over his cold.

I’ve been here three years and have finally gotten to know afew of the locals. Most of the familys around here are parents and grand parents that have finally run off all the youngens.

I will say they are the hardest folks I’ve ever been around to get to know. If you stop and try to greet and meet, they look at you like your casing the place for robbery. So far my best attempts to get to know the people in the area has come from the local postal carrier. With her introducing me to them, say at the local dinner or post office it seems like the ice might be starting to break.

Totally different from what I ran into when I moved to MO. There everyone wanted to know your life story. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to meet new folks all the time, but those folks in Mo are almost to the point of being nosey.:D

Troy

[lyagooshka]

#16364

Troy,

I may have missed something, but what was the “unfair advantage” that this bow would have given you in a primitive class? It’s all wood. Something talls me wood was available in ancient times 😕 . Was the issue that it was a take-down? You wrote that those are allowed now as well. I think I am just missing something. Be well.

Alex

❓

[Troy Breeding]

#16400

Alex,

From the best I can remember. When I ask his reason, he replied “it’s got a cut in sight window and limbs are layered”.

I just laughed and replied ” and hickory or bamboo backed bows aren’t layered”….

Yep, it’s all wood and most likely want have had any more or less working limb than any other selfbow/primitive bow.

If cutting in a sight window helps with the shooting then don’t tell that to alot of my other primitive bows. The arrows I used with them were bareshafted to clean flight.

Truth be known, I was trying to come up with something that would shoot with less handshock than most self/primitive bows. If nothing else the three piece part made it easier to transport.

Troy

[Michael Scott]

#16492

Troy Breeding wrote: Sent the fellow down the road an invite via e-mail return. He excepted and will be dropping by as soon as he gets over his cold.

I’ve been here three years and have finally gotten to know afew of the locals. Most of the familys around here are parents and grand parents that have finally run off all the youngens.

I will say they are the hardest folks I’ve ever been around to get to know. If you stop and try to greet and meet, they look at you like your casing the place for robbery. So far my best attempts to get to know the people in the area has come from the local postal carrier. With her introducing me to them, say at the local dinner or post office it seems like the ice might be starting to break.

Totally different from what I ran into when I moved to MO. There everyone wanted to know your life story. Now don’t get me wrong, I like to meet new folks all the time, but those folks in Mo are almost to the point of being nosey.:D

Troy

I know what you mean about moving to a new area. I’m from Montana, and moved to Texas a couple years ago. We lived in an apartment the first year. This past July, we moved into an actual neighborhood, but I have only talked a few times with the one neighbor on one side of me. The guy on the other side irritates me enough that I really don’t care if I get to know him. Every time I turn around, I’m picking up his garbage out of my front yard because the local feral cats, possums and maybe even coons are knocking his trash cans over almost nightly, and I find it scattered across my yard. I started going to a men’s meeting at a nearby church, but have only made it a few times, plus one church service so far. The younger two kids ended up sick a couple days after going to church and dropping them off in the nursery. Hasn’t been a pleasant week this week. Know a couple guys that live here on Facebook, but they both live an hour or more away, so visits haven’t happened yet, as I’ve always been busy with work or haven’t had the money to make social visits. Houston is a BIG area….LOL!!

[jpcarlson]

#15778

Troy, Where is this one as a finished bow? I would love to see pics of it!!!

Jans

[Troy Breeding]

#16182

Jans,

The riser block is still sitting in the bow room. Built so many bows last year and earlier this year I’m kind of burnt out on building. Besides I’ve got so many furniture build projects going right now. I wouldn’t have time to work on another bow. Been working on a couple of rocking chairs for Christmas presents. Good thing I started on them really early in the year. Never would have thought it would take months to make something that looks so simple.

Troy

[coastalbendbows]

#16330

sweet looking pierce point Troy.

Shawn

[Doc Nock]

#16486

I couldn’t shoot such a straight looking grip more t han 2 shots and I’d be in trouble…but I can LOOK at that all day!

Those pierce points (?) (I type that right) must really add strength to the riser as well.

I saw a quality bowyer’s one piece sans any laminations, blow on a guy! There was a deeply hidden burl that just let loose on the solid riser, and the guy got his head split open by the upper limb when the riser just folded in half towards him…

Beautiful and functional. Can’t beat that combo!

[jpcarlson]

#16906

Mad skills you got yourself there Mr Troy! Awesome!

J

[codger]

#34195

Beautiful workmanship. I odnt see why that bow shouldnt be allowed to shoot longbow class.

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