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Been busy in the shop

Jamie

Senior Member
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177
Ohio
I've brought a couple of new bows to their first arrows in the last few days. too damn wet for me to work at the job that makes me money, so I've been working at the job that makes me happy instead. I took some pics of some different bow designs to send to a potential young bowyer who is wanting to take the plunge into wood bowbuilding. thought some of you might find it interesting. or at least amusing. :)

from left to right, the first three are still under construction but have all been shot and are ready for the finish work. bamboo backed osage static recurve, bbo straight flatbow, bbo deflex/reflex flatbow. next is a finished D/R bbo that I hunted with last season and a snakey osage selfbow with a large knot hole in the upper limb.
IMG_0536.JPG

same bows braced IMG_0538.JPG

close up of limbs showing the backs of a few bows, the belly of selfbow and the siyah on the bbo static recurve IMG_0537.JPG

the buck I shot last November with the finished D/R BBO in the pics above.IMG_0345.jpg
 

Milo

Tatonka guide.
8,184
157
Just fr out of Greg's ship myself.. Looks good old buddy. You have those statics down that's for sure.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,720
248
Ohio
Good looking bows. The knot sure does add some cool character. Great buck as well! Still part of my bucket list: Become proficient with trad bow and kill a deer with it.
 

Jamie

Senior Member
5,690
177
Ohio
thanks for the kind words, fellas. Tom, the statics are a very efficient design, and with the Nels Grumley style brush nocks really are something special if you can pull it off. not many people make them any more as they can be a little cantankerous and are considerably more work than other wood bows. I've always wondered why nobody has made glass bows in this style. 15 years of trial and error and I'm still not sure I have all the bugs worked out. this particular one in the photos is a jewel. probably the fastest 55lb bow I've ever made of any design. by virtue of the static tips, these bows are very, very smooth, gaining only 1-2 lbs per inch for the the last 6" of draw length instead of the 3lbs per inch you usually get with straight limbed bows. it's almost like let-off. rotflmao
 

Jamie

Senior Member
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177
Ohio
indeed, static recurves are head turners everywhere you go. mostly because they are so rare these days. lots of steps involved with making them, and here is how I do it. while making these two bows that I'm working on, I've taken a bunch of pictures to use in an article I'm planning to write for a magazine.

boil the stock to be bent, clamp it in a caul until it's cool.IMG_0447.jpgIMG_0448.jpg

after it's cool, I take it off of the caul, clamp it to smaller caul and heat it up again with dry heat. this helps the bend holds its shape better.IMG_0451.jpgIMG_0453.jpg

I'll leave it clamped up like this for a few days to cool down again and begin dry out some. boiling it puts moisture back into the dry wood, obviously. after I take the clamps off, it goes into 70-80* hotbox for a couple of weeks to get completely dry again so I can glue on the bamboo backing, then the underlay/stiffenerIMG_0485.JPGIMG_0488.JPG

the nocks are very roughly shaped and left wide until the bow is tillered (made to bend correctly to whatever draw length and weight) and the string is aligned to bisect the handle. very important to have the string aligned perfectly with these static tips. if the limbs twist or the tips are out of alignment enough, the string might come off during a shot as it will not track properly and find its way back into the string groove. once all of this is done the tips are narrowed to their final width dimension the bow is shot it, then it's time to finish the siyahs (static "ears").

first thing is to add the overlay. I forgot to take pics of this step but you get the idea.IMG_0548.JPGIMG_0546.JPG
 
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Jamie

Senior Member
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Ohio
now it is just a bunch of tedious file work and a critical eye to get shaped precisely and make them pretty.

IMG_0549.JPGIMG_0550.JPGIMG_0552.JPGIMG_0554.JPG

incidentally, that black diamondwood with and without osage accent stripe came from the piece of scrap left over from the sight window cut out in this pic of Milo's glass recurve riser. nice overlay material, and I got 10 pairs of overlay material from that piece of scape. sweeeet. http://www.theohiooutdoors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=19966&d=1393711878&thumb=1
 
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Milo

Tatonka guide.
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WOW.....Just WOW!!! Awesome thread Jamie!!!!
quite honestly jamie has no business doing what he does for a living as good as he is at making bows. Too bad you cant get the real true value out of them...His craftsmanship is the best i have seen in not only bow building but in general. I feel i'm fairly picky and he makes me look like a slacker. His work is priceless and, in my opinion, when the good lord calls him home this world will be short one of the Best BBO builders of our age. He wont take too kindly to me posting this but the truth is there in his work.
 
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finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
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quite honestly jamie has no business doing what he does for a living as good as he is at making bows. Too bad you cant get the real true value out of them...His craftsmanship is the best i have seen in not only bow building but in general. I feel i'm fairly picky and he makes me look like a slacker. His work is priceless and, in my opinion, when the good lord calls him home this world will be short one of the Best BBO builders of our age. He wont take too kindly to me posting this but the truth is there in his work.

That's quite the compliment coming from you and by the look at these pics of his work I'd imagine you are spot on!

Jamie, what's the story on how you started in this craft? Self taught or mentored? How long ago? How many bows have you made? Do you sell these bows? What price range are they?

Btw, that was a great buck you took last season too, congrats on taking him with your self bow!!! Can't imagine there's much more satisfaction than accomplishing that!!!

Do you make your own arrahs to? If so, from tip to feathers to nock?