Tuesday 16 August 2016

Back to the Hazel


The Hazel has had another week to season a tad more and the wood feels good and crisp uner the rasp.
It's really starting to move now, I've cleaned the upper limb, filled a couple of knots and waxed the back to encourage the bark to stay on.
The knots weren't very solid on the belly side but didn't go right through to the back else I'd have cleaned 'em out and left them as character holes. I filled them with Yew dust and epoxy to match better with their original colour.
The lower limb is a tad stiff and I'm now working on bringing that round a bit more, the brace height has now been increased to about the final height. There is still plenty of draw weight, but I'm not pulling it too hard until I've evened up the limbs a bit more.
I'm on the home stretch now, but taking it very carefully to avoid chrysalling a limb.
Cleaning up near the grip reveals some pretty but subtle figure round the central pith of the stave, I think it's beginning to get more elegant as it progresses.

I've rasped a whisker off the lower limb and put it up on the tiller 45# at 21" so getting close now. I'll probably have it to full draw by the weekend, although I'll also be apple hunting for my cider!
Update:_ teased it back a bit more 45# at 24"
Hope to post some pics or video tomorrow showing near full draw.



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