Friday 11 April 2014

Messing with the Monkey Bow

I've been pottering about doing a bit of this and that. I can't concentrate for too long, because of my cold, so I picked up the Monkey bow, a short deflexed bit of Elder which I'd roughed out ages ago. I was planning to add levers (Siyahs) onto to the ends. I'd been toying with making a scale model and trying to work out fancy angles and such like so the string would lift off a couple of string bridges progressively as it approached full draw. I soon realised I don't have the necessary physics or maths to work it out and to make a model would be as much work as doing the real thing.
I'll just wing it, I've some experience having done an Asiatic recurve from f/glass (spits on floor) laminations and also a Hazel recurve with fairly extreme flipped tips.
Anyhow, if non of that makes sense, just bear with me and eventually you'll see what I'm attempting. Dunno if it will work, but it's giving me something to play with.

The funny knots above the grip (left pic) give it the name Monkey Bow...( whooop whoop Ah ah ah).
S'pose I should say what I'm aiming for... I have no idea really, so lets say 40 at 26", maybe 28"?. The glue joints don't have much surface area so it won't take much more than that.
The purpose of the exercise is twofold. To have a play with Elder and to have a look at some lever geometry. If it works at all it's a bonus.
Glue should be dry tomorrow, so I can mess about with it, dunno if I'll feel up to shooting, just planing those two levers had me puffing and blowing like an old man... mind I s'pose by the standards of my youth I am an old man.
Nah 60 is the new 40 :-)

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