I want to start this story by saying that we shouldn't throw away our early attempts at bow building. Even though they may seem hopeless at the time, after we gain experience they may be fixable. I sure wish I had saved more of my early bows.
I was at a friends house a while back discussing bow building, I think we were discussing our early bows, how bad they were, and what it would take to fix them. In the corner of his garage is a 5-gallon bucket that holds "bucket bows", the ones that didn't turn out well but were too good to throw away. He retrieved one such "bow" from the bucket, handed it too me and said, "try to make something shootable out of this one". I'm always willing to accept a challenge so I agreed.
After I got home and looked it over really good I started to second guess myself. It had three different rings on the back, was whip tillered, and had a big knot on the edge of one limb. However it was 70" long and had plenty of wood in the riser to work with. For grins and chuckles I put it on a postal scale, it weighed 30 ozs and drew 47#.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1392.jpg)
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1393.jpg)
I'm not sure what happened here, but it wasn't good.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1391.jpg)
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1390.jpg)
I started by working the back to one ring and then cut it to 62" long. Then I reflexed the tips and aligned the string.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1394.jpg)
I was able to remove most of the knot and it started looking pretty good.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1396.jpg)
I was running low on cow horn so I used black phenolic for the tip overlays.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1407.jpg)
After a little tillering it started looking better.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1411.jpg)
The grip needed filled out a bit so I used epoxy putty to make a bulbous handle and shelf.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1414.jpg)
After several coats of tru-oil the tips sure look like horn.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1440.jpg)
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1437.jpg)
The bow has a mass weight of 18.5 ozs and draws 45#. It lost 11.5 ozs of mass and only lost 2# draw weight. It is one sweet shooter.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1436.jpg)
Here is the bow with it's "new" owner. I hope you enjoy it Mark.
(http://i818.photobucket.com/albums/zz110/greginmalad/brock%20bow/100_1435.jpg)
Nice save greg! I have used the putty for grip filler before to. It works great. I nevee thought to use it for a shelf. Good call. Sweet tips too.
The putty worked so well for the shelf I'm going to start using it more often.
Good looking bow,really like the tips!
Ernie
Great work, Greg!
Where do you get the epoxy filler? Haven't heard of it before.
Great job on the challenge, looks very nice!
wow what a remoldel job :thumbsup:
Thanks Guys, It was the most challenging rework job yet. I learned quite a bit on this one.
red hill, I found the epoxy putty at the hardware store.
Nice. I go back and rework boys alot.
What was the name of the epoxy product...
I've reworked a few of my earlier bows. It's kind of funny because you can go back to them and ask yourself. Man what the heck was I thinking? Or why in the world did I do that?
I like cow horn too turns out really nice. Good job on the re-furb.
Shawn
Nice project and well done! The "fades" are still scary but there was not much you could do to change that. Nice tiller and finish and it looks like a real shooter now. Love the original club tips with wrap around string groove.
Cool rework and gift Greg! My corner of learning is officially empty now. I finished my last rework a few days ago and the rest have been burned up.
Very nice Greg.
Nice rework Greg. What kind of epoxy putty was that?
Nice job on that one Greg!!
Kevin and Brad, I don't remember the epoxy putty brand name. I used the 5-minute variety.
Shaun, I agree with you about the fades. I was a bit worried but they held. The bow only took 1/2" set so it's still overbuilt and understressed.
Pearl, I like your "corner of learning" phrase. I always called mine "the corner of shame" and it still holds 4 bows.
great job! Makes me want to re-examine my seconds shelf.
Thats a great lookin bow now Greg. Love the braced and full draw profile. :thumbsup:
Greg, great save on that one, the phenolic on the tips really set it off and make a sharp looking bow. Last spring, while tillering my first attempt at my trade bow, the top limb blew. I saved the bottom limb and Z spliced it to another bow that blew the top limb also. Re-shaped the handle and re tillered it to 43# @ 28" One half is Hophornbeam and the other is mulberry, it turned out to be a pretty sweet shooter. I gifted it to my brother to get him into trad archery. Moral of the story, even broken bows still have a chance....Dan
Finally a minute off work!
Greg did a super job on that bow, it is almost unrecognizable from how I received it. Not only does it look good but it shoots great.
I had originally given that bow to Greg to mess around with and did not expect it back. Boy was I surprised!
I have a bucket in the garage with 8-10 bows in it that are not bad enough to throw away but not good enough to finish up.
Someday I`ll give them another go, every now and then I pull one out and look it over.....then put it back.
Mark
Beautiful work, great tip on the epoxy putty.
I never used that product before, (Epoxy Putty) but will keep it in mind if the need arises. I did use a product called "JB WELD" which is mostly used on metal, but worked perfectly on a bow that I had built for my brother in law. The red oak riser needed to be a little thicker.
John
Nice save!! I only have one survivor right now, and it's all splintered up under the linen backing and chrysalled on the belly. Gonna perty it up and make it a decoration if anything:)
Again, very nice work. Those tips are sweet!