"Little Feather"
A Kid's Bow
I have wanted to try building a kid's bow for some time, but just didn't get
the incentive to have that project move to the head of the list. I was recently
asked if I would give it a try and did. I'm not really satisfied with this first
attempt as it came out shorter and lighter than I was aiming for.
My big mistake here was in trying to make too big a jump from what I'm used
to doing. Up till now, I've been moving in slow increments up and down from
formulas I knew worked. On this one, I was essentially starting a whole new
design and my initial calculations just didn't produce what I was after. I was
looking for a 56" bow that would be about 24@24. What I got was a 52"
bow that's 16@24. However, it does give me a point to work from, and I will
be trying again in the future.
Layup:
.030 glass
.100 slightly tapered
.060 parallel
.030 glass
Total wood stack: .160
Total stack: .220
Riser: walnut
Weight: 10 oz (!)
Going from my usual .040 glass to .030 was too big a jump. My next attempt
at a kids bow I'll increase the core some and use .040 on the back and .030
on the belly. That should come out closer to what I was after.
Here's the bow:
Got a nice, noticeable amount of string follow
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Strung
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The mark at the top is a capital "R" merged with a captial
"W". This is how I used to sign my paintings and needlework.
I thought I'd try it on a bow instead of signing the limb. I kind
of like it.
52"
8@16
12@20
16@24
"Little Feather"
drawing of feather
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Found a nice piece of soft gray leather for the wrap. Riser is the
"classic", or no shelf variety, with a simple leather wedge
inserted on both sides of the wrap.
I was taking the bow out back to test when I found this crow feather...
and the bow was named.
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As I said, it will shoot, this was at 16 yards.
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This kind of surprised me. It's at 22 yards. The first three shots
were in that nice group. The next several went wild, but I decided
to pull them and see if I could put more there... with great care
two did go into the bunch, the next one going wide and low. What it
showed me was that even with this light a bow I can shoot if I concentrate
on my form 8^)
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Gotta love this shot. Raven (66"and 27#) next to Little Feather
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Dick