Black locust pyramid, 48# 30"

[Ishi]

One day young man came into my shop and asked me to make for him a bow that looks similar to my old pyramid locust bow, but lighter. Yesterday I finaly finished it. It is 68" ntn pyramid, little over 2" wide at fades. One of the strange things: I have about two dozen staves cutted in one forest. All of them are prone to crysaling very much! This is one of them. What is interesting: they do not take much set along with getting crysals. Tiller of this bow should be total elyptical but finished whiped. I had to avoid crysaling that starts very early, on the first brace (before pulling further) and to avoid big nasty dead knot in one limb. Low set, smooth draw. On one pic it is side by side with my good old bow.

[GiantGinger]

Two insanely beautiful bows.
I like your old knotty locust as it is a really unique and lovely piece!

Thanks for showing!

Greetings
Ginger

[LJB]

Hi Ishi,

very nice Bow! I was wondering if you only use the sapwood on this Black Locust or is there core wood in the Belly?
The anual rings look very tiny to me, how thick are they? I have a stave of Black Locust with very tiny rings and i was thinking of cutting it for thermal use these days....

Best regards,

Leo

[Agroman]

Great work as usual !

[Haitha]

You're starting to bore the hell outa me Beautiful bow as ever. The knot is really nasty!

[Windmann]

Smooth and so natural. I like your style. Have you got a picture of the nocks, Ishi?

[Frankster]

Hi Ishi,

Very outstanding impressive Bows. I totally like the looks by the pyramid design with the nots. Actually on the pictures the tiller does not look so much whipped. It seems more that the main bending areas are at the mid of the limbs. A long bow with a small bending area should give a good performance. Can you give some data to your old bow? wood, length, strength, etc..

[Ishi]

Thank you very much my friends!
LJB, these ring are thin but with good early/late wood ratio. On both bows there are some thin layer of sapwood that could not be removes because it is part of heartwood ring that I chased. Soometimes sap and heart comes together in first heartwood ring.
Windman, I havent photos the nocks, they are copies of old bow nocks, something like this:

Frankster, I totaly agree: almost always longbows with little whiped limbs have very good cast. But if we check tension of the limb parts we also see that working parts are more stressed that should be. I do not know to explain it very well, but Tim Baker did it excellent in TTBB. I like this forum because here are many people that understand bows so good.
Here are some specs of my old bow:
It was 125# in the begining, at 29". 2" wide at fades, 70" ntn. It has 1 3/5 set. I think it is now about 115# because last winter I overdraw it few times to 31" and cause some crysals. Bow is still very vivid, live and happy in my posession.

[LJB]

Thanks Ishi, but i think my BL stave is not good for bowmaking, the rings are about 1mm thick. Almost impossible to chase one ring without insulting the next.

By the way, nice Picture of full draw with Black Locust population as background

Best regards,

Leo