chasseurnoir

This bow was an impulsive project. I had started another bow that wasn't going the way I wanted it to. I decided to put it off for awhile but still felt like building a bow. I had been talking with blacksmith about a tentative trade of a bow for hand forged knife, so I decided to tackle that project. I decided to try my first black glass bow, and also to go for a bit more weight than I can really use, because I had someone who might like to have it. I had already established that I can build bows in my weight range; I felt it was time to reach upwards a bit.

The finished bow is really beautiful. I love the combined effect of the black glass with white bamboo lams divided by the red/orange yew lam. The zebrawood riser just sets it all off. It's a bit too wide limbed to be considered a true Hill style, definitely a flatbow. As I worked on it, the black glass contrast with the woods somehow brought the name "Black Archer" to mind, but, for some totally strange reason, in French... which I do not speak. I had Ann check, then checked again myself on an internet translater, and the French word for "archer" is... get ready... "archer". Somehow, that word being the same in both languages just didn't ring my bell. However, I did come up with an alternate selection: "Black Hunter", which in French is "Le Chasseur Noir".

Here's a nice shot of the bow during finishing. You can see what I mean about the wood/glass contrast.	Unstrung, my usual very slight deflex or string follow.
Strung	Riser, shelf side
Riser, offside
"Le Chasseur Noir" - The Black Hunter
Finished bow's first group, about 13 yards.	Center of that group... I certainly don't do this consistently, but it is becoming more and more frequent.
30 Yards... The bow shoots fine, the more open group is much more representative of my usual shooting, and, in fact, included two arrows that were reshot. I just didn't get back to my anchor and they ended up in the grass. When reshot with some concentration, they went with the others, indicating that the bow is consistent, even if I'm not. With a good anchor at full draw, 30 yards becomes my point on with this bow... beyond my usual distance.

Dick