Beautiful longbow! I've always wanted to try building one.
Thank you... I'm really looking forward to getting an opportunity to do another build. I've got the stave prepped and rough cut from a horizontal branch I cut of Vine Maple. It then went into a form (clamped) and dried for a year. It was roughed out the day after I'd cut the limb out in the woods.
Took that one down on the back... following the same growth ring the full length of the bow... should be a nice stable/solid piece of wood.
We went here (east side of the Cascade Range, north of I-90.
Saw this ol' gal out and about. This is a Columbia Blacktail... they're NOT a big species.
The nearest hunk is my stave.
Now, cutting a horizontally laying branch is important. As soon as you cut it, it begins to "relax" and has its own ready made "reflex" (curve) since the weight is no longer being supported, it curls. That inside radius of that curve is what you want to become the back of your bow. This way... it'll WANT to return to that reflexed curve, giving you a more snappy bow, instead of taking a set and not applying power to the arrow all the way until it leaves the string. Time to lay out the rough cuts on the band saw.
Here, I'm making the rough cut to define one of the sides of the bow, you can see the reflex of the limb curling UPward... that will be the "back" of the bow.