58" longbow

[Lemont]

why do hardly ever see 58" highly deflex reflex longbows without the forward types of handles like a recurve im saying the design like big jim or kenny m but 58" ntn with say a 50lb @ 28"

[Dmaxshawn]

I have too many on my photo bucket page to post so heres a link


http://s301.photobucket.com/albums/nn61/Dmaxshawn/

[kennym]

Here is a 58" with low grip,ya just gotta grind off more handle!  :D  



A 64"



Another 58"

[Lemont]

kenny are these the same shape as the recent 64" bows i see that you have made?

[Roy from Pa]

Oh, I suppose it's ok , Kenny):

[Bowjunkie]

You can pull it off without glass too. Here's a bamboo backed osage bow I made a few months ago. 58" long and 60# @ 28". She's short, petite, light, and balanced.

 

[Bowjunkie]

The handle...

 

[briarjumper12]

Junkie,
how do you do the two tone stain and make them blend together well?  Very nice.

[kennym]

Close, but the riser has slightly less deflex on the 58/60" form to move the tips forward for a bit more preload.

[Bowjunkie]

Briarjumper, practice, lots of practice  

I use oil or alcohol based aniline dyes, lay the dark down where I want it with a small patch of cotton cloth, then use the lighter color on the balance of the bow(clean cloth of course), get a good solid dye there too, then gradually come out of the light up into/invading the dark, dragging it into the lighter color a little at a time, blending/fading as I go... switching cotton dye rags with clean, used single color, or used blended colored-cloth, etc. as needed, along the way. Whatever it takes to get the effect I want. Sometimes some of the best finessing is done as the rags are beginning to dry out.

0000 steel wool can be used afterwards to help ease the fade of different colors into each other, to put 'highlights' along the edges, to remove color from the summer wood while leaving it in the porous spring wood and grain, or to fade the lighter dye into the natural color of the osage and bamboo. Some of these techniques are used on single color dye jobs, as well as dye jobs of 3 or more colors.

It's actually not that hard to do, and only takes a bow or two to get the hang of it. You can use test pieces too of course.

 

[strungstick]

I've made a number of them in the 58"-62" range for my 28" draw.  Shoot well for me!

[PV]

A 57"

Made the riser slimmer than this on a few others. No pic's in photobucket though.