So my good buddy Mickey "The Ferret" Lotz once tried to make the "Perfect Snake" by drawing a pattern on a straight-grained hickory board and cutting it out. It almost worked but, predictably, lifted a spinter at one of the snakes. Sometime later he came up with this thing and started to make the "Perfect Snake II". He sorta retired from making bows before he finished it. One thing led to another and I volunteered to finish it for him during a recent visit.
Here's how I received it.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/001-5.jpg)
He had chased the ring and laid it out pretty well. Unfortunately, he missed a couple snakes and the grain was severely compromised in two spots. I'll blame it on his old age or bad eyesight or getting distracted by one of the monster bucks that hang out in his backyard. At any rate, this 68" bow has now become a 57" bow but it should survive and be really cool.
Here's where I am now. It's bending pretty well on the floor. Over the next week or so, I'll cut some nocks and see if I can tiller it.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/004-4.jpg)
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/005-4.jpg)
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/007-3.jpg)
Very cool bow John, looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Wow John, that thing is just screamin to become a snake of some sort.....Dan
very nice! I think it will be a shooter
Good luck with that snake, John. Those babies can be tricky to tiller.
You will need a piece of corkscrew willow to make the matching arrow. Looking forward to seeing the full draw pic on this one.
i will pay attention to this thread, i cant wait for the next installment
For those of you who don't know Mickey, please take my teasing in the right way. He is a master bowyer and incredibly talented. He is also responsible in part for the resurgence of wooden bows and certainly for getting and keeping me involved in making wooden bows.
I won't get much if anything done today as I have a dinner date with Mom.
Fantastic blank John.
John, I wondered what happened to that. I new he started it, I'm glad to see it's in good hands!
Lee
That is very cool. Can't wait to see it tillered! Good luck.
That's gonna look sweet :thumbsup:
That's going to be very cool indeed!!!
I love it! I can't wait to see it bend. :-)
That's gonna be too cool for school!
I see you got your spider repelent in the basket!
Here's a shot of Lotz and me years ago. You've probably seen it before so this is for those who may have not had the pleasure to know him. He was nice enough to bring me some gifts as I was recovering. Talented and a real nice guy. He also was a big influrence on me getting in to the osage selfbows.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/Osagetree/mickeylotz1.jpg)
Can't wait to see more John!
Hey Joe, Those are fake hedge balls (actually some fru-fru decor thing) but they still scare the spiders away :) Nice pic. Mickey has a hell of a smile.
Nice stick, John! Can't wait to see her finished. I'm kinda jealous...
Great looking stave. I built my first bow following Ferrets
Directions on his web site,it was a great web page.
John I like my snakes in the 50ish range at 28" :bigsmyl:
That's gonna be sweet for sure
I tell you it is funny I have one of his cane arrow threads I found and is what brought me to this site in my first deployment back in 05. I think I have it saved still on my old laptop as a word doc I need to look and see now.
Good luck John on that bow. I bet it is going to be a sweet looking bow. Heck you might have to put it into the PA bow of the month once it is done.
Great looking stave John, can't wait to see how she turns out.
Never had the pleasure of meeting Mickey but I did save most of the stuff he had on his web site. I know I have the pictures of all his how to's and I think the instructions, as well. He could do an incredible how-to, just check out the how to forum on here and see how many of the older ones has his name on them. Pity he hasn't been around here in years.
Went to the lake this weekend and took the snaky bow to get it tillered. I did a little more floor tillering and got it looking pretty good and light enough to brace. Here' the first pull. Not too bad but still way heavy.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/002-3.jpg)
I gave it 20 scrapes on the bottom and 10 on the top. Pulled a little farther it shows a little weak on the bottom and still way heavy.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/003-5.jpg)
30 on the top, 20 on the bottom. Looking pretty round but the top is still too stiff.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/004-5.jpg)
20 on the top, 10 on the bottom. Getting lighter yet, still strong on top.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/005-5.jpg)
Not too bad. Still heavy. 20 on top and bottom.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/006-3.jpg)
10 on top and bottom. Not bad.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/007-4.jpg)
The handle is really blockish and the string is off the right hand side. I thought I'd shape it and see if I could get the string closer to the center without doing any heat bending.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/008-3.jpg)
I gave it another 10 scrapes top and bottom and then bent it again. I think the camera cought me with a look of trepidation as I heard a click in the upper limb.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/009-2.jpg)
I gave it a full lookover andcould find no splinters lifting or other problems. There was a windshake that I glued up with some superglue and assumed it was some of the excess glue letting loose. I scraped it all down and gave it 10 or so scrapes on each limb.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/010-1.jpg)
It's looking pretty good and I am starting to get excited about this thing living. It's still abit heavy so I scrape it down a little more and start cleaning up the limbs anticipating the finish job I'm going to put on it.
I pulled it back to full draw and disaster struck.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/011-1.jpg)
She let go in the spot where the grain ran off really bad in the upper limb part of the handle. I had thought that I left it in the handle enough so that it would not flex but I guess it let go anyways. I've been seriously bummed for 2 days.
Physically, I guess I was lucky it hit me in the ribs and not the head. I don't have a tiller tree set up at the lake so I was pulling it by hand. The bruise is painful but the broken bow of a lifetime is the real pain here.
(http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r607/jdscifres/013-2.jpg)
Ouch! That's why I have my wife pull the bow back and I take the pictures. I'm way to pretty to end up with a bruise like that. :coffee:
:dunno: Hope you're not hurt bad, John.
Sorry to see that, John. The broken bow, that is, more sorry to have seen the picture of your chest. Could have lived without that! :scared:
I remember when Mickey originally posted this bow and wondered if he finished it and if it survived the artificial "snake". You've answered both questions.
Hope your heart and body heals up quickly over this.
Bummer john. Sorry for your loss and pain. That would have been a cool.one.
I feel your brother, Hope you saved the good end for a splice job in the future.
sorry brother
John, I am so sorry that happened to you! I hope you get the chance at another snakey bow and because that was looking awesome.
John, I am so sorry that happened to you! I hope you get the chance at another snakey bow and because that was looking awesome.
Ouch, too bad John... Glad you didn't get hurt when it broke.
Ah nuts.......it was going so well! Glad you didn't get really hurt bad!
Darnit it Mann! That was looking good, enjoyed it while it lasted.
Looks painful, hope to see you back in the saddle again soon!
That's really too bad, it was looking like one of those lifetime creations.
Rats!! It was looking good too!
:scared:
Ouch!
Sorry for the loss of the bow, but do please tend to that nasty bruise!