My wife has been hounding me for months for a traditional recurve or stick bow.

While we are patiently(NOT) waiting for Martin to start shipping the Jaguar Take-Down, I decided to whip her out a stick-bow....

Having limited time, I ordered a U-Finish kit from rudderbow's... 65" (her height) unstrung length and tillered to 25# @ 27". I got a rough blank that was 65" strung up and tested to be 35#@28" but she was able to pull, hold and shoot it well enough so I didn't pitch a fuss....



Firstly I broke out my "floats (http://www.planemaker.com/planemakers_floats.html)".
http://my1.photodump.com/uploads/SandSquid/1dfd66091e91cf0b.JPG used by wooden hand plane makers...
I have several in my collection of vintage woodworking tools but they are too valuable (to a collector) to use, so I commissioned a set from Clark & Williams makers of Traditional Wooden Hand Planes (http://www.planemaker.com/) many years ago back when they were just starting out and we were kicking around the OldTools list serv, and bashing all the "Normites" on rec.woodworking. They are specialized "files" that cut either on the push or pull stroke. they have teeth that extend all the way to the very edge and ave very accurate and truly spectacular tools.

A few quick swipes and the shelf was nicely radiused and pretty much ready to shoot.



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Having VERY limited time to get this finished, sealed, and shooting before I go "under the knife" for Shoulder Surgery on Friday, I took many shortcuts I would not normally take..... namely using my Random Orbit sander and ran through the grits... 120, 220, 320, 400, and 600.. took all of about 1 hour.

Under normal circumstances I'd have used a hand-made (by me) wooden spokeshave to bring it down to final smoothness.

Two coats of General Finished Arm-R-Seal (instead of mixing up a batch of Button shellac) and it's "done".



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I also fletched up some of my old Carbon Express arrows w/ natural feahter so she'd have something to shoot.

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The next step will be to hand it over to my daughter who will paint a flame pattern on the back and a dragon skin patter on the belly of the limbs then a few more light top coats of finish....

The observant will note this is a LEFT handed bow and I'm shooting it right handed. Mrs. Squid is the Lefty, it is her bow, I'm right-handed.

very nice. what kind of wood is it?

very nice. what kind of wood is it?


It looks land smells like Maple

I've been looking for a left handed bow in the right draw weight and bow length that I want and havent had much luck. this may be the way to go. I looked on the rudderbows website, and the hogbow looks like it might be just what I want. thanks for the info.

great looking bow i have been looking at there website for the past 20 mins and i think i might have to order one