New Bows -- American Materials

I have three new bows up for sale, Bill, Thwap! (because that’s the sound it makes), and Georgie. This latest run of work still maintains a focus on the natural beauty of the wood, however, instead of using exotic woods like bacote, bubinga, cocobolo, or rosewood, all of which come from tropical environments and are becoming somewhat scarce, I decided to focus on domestic woods which are in great abundance here in The United States. I have nothing against using exotic woods, but I wanted to prove that the wood I so often admire in furniture, can be just as beautiful in a bow as anything flashy and exotic.

Bill, which has a buffalo horn riser (see what I did there?), is made of American Curly Maple with Cherry limbs Georgie is a Cherry riser with Maple Parquetry and Walnut limbs, while Thwap! is made from a beautiful piece of Cherry, with Maple limbs. All have fiberglass backing and buffalo horn nocks for strength.

Expect more of these domesticated bows in the future!

BowCote! →

My most recent recurve, BowCote, is finished.  It's the newest bow in a line focused on the simplicity and beauty of the wood from which they're made.  BowCote's riser wood, as the name suggests, is Bacote, a South American tropical hardwood with inimitable grain and character.  It's that character that I want to speak for itself, which is why I left the riser simple, as one solid piece with no additional strips or accents, the only deviation being the brass medallion with the Brooklyln Bowyer logo.  It shoots 40# @ 28" with an AMO of 62" making it a smooth shooter with almost no stacking.

Gizmo!

Gizmo is now up for sale!  After seeing just how beautiful this African Rosewood is, I decided to make the riser one solid piece as opposed to adding accents, which gives the final product an elegant simplicity that I couldn't be more pleased with.  The handle section has a built-in cant and a hint of a thumb rest to increase comfort in the hand.  Thin strips of the same piece of African Rosewood overlay the limb tips for added beauty.  I couldn't be more pleased with how Gizmo looks and shoots.

Wiley

Wiley represents my foray into the world of fiberglass recurve bows after having spent so much time and energy making all-wood bows.  While I personally would rather make and shoot wooden-limbed bows, there is a certain utility in fiberglass limbs, not to mention a market.  I have to admit, I very much missed the time and attention that goes into tillering the limbs of a wooden bow.  The hours spent making sure the limbs bend just so and and just the right draw weight lend themselves to a feeling of connection to and ownership of the bow.  It isn't to say that feeling isn't there with a fiberglass bow--the time I would have spent manually shaving off minuscule amounts of wood and then checking the tiller and repeating until the job is done was rather spent prepping with great precision all the parts that go into a recurve glue-up.  And there is something magical about a glue-up done right, as the bow comes out of the form perfectly tillered (at hopefully close to the weight for which you were aiming).  Luckily, my favorite part of bowyering, sculpting the wooden riser, is unchanged with fiberglass bows.  There's certainly no less work in a recurve, however it's more work of the mind rather than muscle.  I wonder if I'll ever get used to the feeling of completing a bow without sore muscles.

Introducing Mrs. Rabbit

The newest addition to the collection and up for sale now is Mrs. Rabbit.  This one is an Osage Orange reflex-deflex longbow, backed with Hickory.  The riser, which I chose to contour more than most, gives a sense of familiarity for easier consistency of hand placement shot to shot.  The red Paduak wood is stunning.  So much so that my camera has a hard time not auto adjusting to the point where the colors look hyper-saturated (even for this colorblind guy).  I did something new on the tips in that I shaped the buffalo horn into an ever-so-slight recurve, with small grooves down the belly for the string.  I also narrowed the material on the ends of the limbs to a bare minimum.  That in combination with the reflex and the natural superiority of Osage Orange make this bow a fast shooter, despite it's low draw weight.  All this to say: I'm very pleased with how Mrs. Rabbit turned out.