I hope everyone has visited the St. Jude's Auction Forum. There are a lot of very generous donations from forum members and sponsors. Everyone should take a look at the 5 pages of donated goods. If you are a member of Trad Gang there is something for you there. Plus it is for a great charity. The success of this auction really defines the terrific people on this site, both bidders and donors.
Last year I was fortunate to win an item donated by Brian Halbleib from The Bowyers Journal.
It was a complete selfbow kit including a drawknife, scraper set, ferriers rasp, tillering string with dual leather cups, Bowyers Journal t-shirt, Bowyers Journal subscription and a terrific Gary Davis osage stave.
I won the kit for a friend, Scott, who was interested in making his first selfbow and this was a perfect way for him to start even though I would be leading the construction (now that's funny!).
Since Scott has a legitimate 30" draw I was a little nervous about using the 65" stave in the kit so I bought another stave from Gary Davis at Mojam that was 70" long for a little insurance. Plus I got to keep the shorter stave :) .
We got the bow tillered but there was an "oops" area of some overzealous sanding that developed a small crack while shooting it in and before adding the finish.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/Wilcoxbow01.jpg)
After some superglue to the crack I added a sinew patch (per mentors Dano and Scifres):
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/Sinewpatch01.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/sinewpatch02.jpg)
More to follow.
The area was a little stiff (lower limb) but we got a nice shooting bow. Extremely quiet.
69" n-t-n 55#@30"
Added some overlays:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/-4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/-2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/-3.jpg)
Finished with a straight unbraced profile after starting with about an 1" of reflex:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/Wilunb.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/-1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/LostArrow/-5.jpg)
Scott is becoming deadly accurate with his first selfbow and we are planning on a backpack hunt in Colorado this fall.
Thanks to Shell for the elk hide for the grip and many many thanks to Brian for the generous donation. Bowyers Journal again has many outstanding items on this year's auction from bows to hunting trips. So be sure to check it out.
Good job Bob :thumbsup:
nice bow!
Very nice!!
Very impressive. :notworthy:
Dang that is a pretty selfbow.
Mike
thats a goodin , ya got love yellar wood!!! :)