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A Crooked Bow

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vtsteam:
Here's the handle area -- located between two good sized knots. The handle had been wider before -- same width as the knots, but that wide handle put a lot of strain on my wrist, and didn't fit my shooting style. So I narrowed that area, and in effect made the knots into "fades" -- the usual swelling out place for the limbs. I still followed natural grain flow lines, so it also looks quite natural here, as if the narrow section grew that way. But of course it didn't. Sometimes a practical purpose aslo suits an aesthetic one!

vtsteam:
The bow with the new altered handle width:

vtsteam:
Another problem with the handle area for me was, it reduced my draw quite a bit. The bow had become only 3/4" thick there, while most conventional "hard" handle bows might be 1-3/4" thick or more. If you subtract 1" from the handle depth, it brings the bow that much closer, and reduces your draw by 1". I hadn't realized that before, but I did once I started shooting aroows through it.

But I had reduced the thickness of the handle to get a better curve toward the center of the bow. I had made in effect what is called a "bendy" handle -- one of the two different handle styles.

So how could i add thickness and still retain a small amount of bend? Some people pad it out with leather -- though not an inch worth.

I thought about it for awhile, and wondered if I could lash a short length of wood, like a stick of some sort. Rather than glue a piece of wood on -- which would make a stiff handle.

It would need to be of fairly bendy material and fit in a way that might allow some movement. I decided to try a piece of grape vine, which grows wild around here in the woods and cn be up to 4" thick.

I found a piece of the right side and shaped the bottom for a slight rocking fit on the bow.

SwarfnStuff:
What an interesting topic, specially for one who has no idea about bows and arrows except that which most boys go up to in my youth some 70 odd orbits ago. Thank you for sharing. Oh, and I like the bushland looking setting of many of your photographs and if it's your back yard - lucky you.

John B

awemawson:
Steve thank for a very detailed description, it makes a nice change to read up on a totally unfamiliar subject.

It just happens that (following a comment on another thread) the next book on my reading list is:

Longbow by Robert Hardy which details the social and military history of the bow.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Longbow-A-Social-Military-History/dp/1852604123

However it will have to wait a few days while I finish "Vegetius: Epitome of Military Science" as although I'm reading it in translation from the Latin text, it takes concentration!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vegetius-Epitome-Military-Translated-Historians/dp/085323910X

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