Thursday 25 April 2013

Belly Patch Bow Full Draw

The wobbly bow ( Dogleg ) with the belly patch has now hit full draw. It was drawing about 65# at 28" on the tiller but has had a fair bit of scraping and cleaning up since and may well be down from that. The horn nocks are not polished up yet.
The glue line on the belly patch is visible in places but it seems sound enough and I may well take the bow back to 32" as it's my longest bow and I wouldn't want to take the others back that far.
Over all I'm very pleased that it's looking much more even. The back is lovely and clean, I'm slowly taking off the last remnants of cambium with gently use of a curved scraper. The pics show it unstrung, braced and at full draw.

I was down South at the weekend and I met up with my brother who gave me a wooden spokeshave he picked up at a place that sells old tools. It's had very little use and still has the manufacturer's label which proclaims "MADE IN SHEFFIELD" That's good enough for me.
I tapped out the blade and honed it lightly on my oilstone. The blade has a thick rib along the back edge so it sits nicely on the oil stone at the right angle for sharpening.
I put the blade back in and tapped it lightly with a hammer to get the right height of cut. Testing it on an off cut of Yew showed it cut superbly.
It cost a mere £4 and has two parts a beech wood handle and a Sheffield steel blade. A modern one has eight parts by comparison, and we call that progress!

On the May bank holiday Monday (may 6th) I will be at the Beltane Festival at Celtic Harmony Camp in Hertfordshire. http://celticharmony.org/pages/days_beltane_games_festival.php
I'll be taking my shave horse and some staves to demonstrate a bit of bow making and chat to people, I will help out with the have a go archery too. If any of you are near there, it's a good day out.




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