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Food Wars vs Revenge Food

Okay, so here is the deal.

I am really tired of hearing people argue about food and fur.

Yes, we get it. Vegans don't like it when people hunt for food, trap for food/fur, or use leather/antlers or other animal byproducts.

I personally have no problem with people eating what they kill and using the fur, leather, antlers, bones, and anything else they can salvage. eg. Deer sinew is handy for bowmaking.

But I do have a problem with having to hear about it from nitwits who are trying to force their beliefs on to other people.

So the deal I have made with myself is that every time someone annoys me with their whole "fur is evil" or "hunting is evil" arguments, I go and eat a cute fuzzy animal. I call it The Revenge Food Principle. Every time someone annoys me, I go eat a cute animal as revenge.

The more annoyed they make me, the cuter the animal is.

Rabbits, lambs, deer... they are all on the menu.

I even found several lists of places where I can go eat locally here in Toronto:

Lamb
https://foursquare.com/top-places/toronto/best-places-lamb-shanks

Rabbit
https://foursquare.com/top-places/toronto/best-places-rabbit

Duck*
https://foursquare.com/top-places/toronto/best-places-roast-duck

* I decided to add duck to the list because I personally find them to be really cute. The meat is really greasy, but I will just have to deal with it however. I think on a cuteness scale however, a nice young lamb is still cuter however. Rabbits also very cute, so ducks will only be eaten if I am mildly annoyed.

Look how cute this duck is? And tasty! I very much want to eat it.


So here is the plan.

Every time a vegan treehugger pisses me off I am going to eat one of the above mentioned food items. Or maybe I will finally get my hunting license and get into small game hunting. Either way, more food for my belly.

Also, every time they piss me off I am also going to add their names here. In the Hall of Cute but Tasty Food Shame. And to prove that these are real people I will be posting links to their Facebook profiles / etc.

I might even go a step further and post photos of any animals I kill with me holding up a sign that says "I killed this rabbit for you Jenny Patterson."

The Hall of Cute but Tasty Food Shame

Jenny Patterson so far has killed 2 cute widdle animals.
https://www.facebook.com/jenny.patterson.982

Andy Niko has killed 1 so far. I am thinking a rabbit. I have never had rabbit before.
https://www.facebook.com/andy.niko.31

Updates

December 27th 2017
Aleah Hall of Toronto has killed 1 duck and 1 lamb so far by annoying me. If she annoys me again I am thinking I will add pork to the menu.
https://www.facebook.com/aleah.hall


So yeah... go ahead. Annoy me. I have 34 bows, an untold number of arrows, and I keep telling myself I should get my hunting license. So if going out to restaurants to eat rabbit, lamb and duck gets too expensive I will just get my hunting license and add venison to the menu.

Tonight my wife and I are going out to dinner at a restaurant. Some place that serves lamb. I have a sudden hankering to eat lamb for some reason. You can thank Jenny Patterson for that.



Comments?

Absolutely, feel free to post annoying comments. I will respond by killing another cute widdle animal. Go ahead. Make my tasty food.

Black Hawk Bow Models

1972 Black Hawk Avenger
Saw this on another website: http://blackhawkbows.blogspot.ca/p/blog-page.html

I decided to repost in case that website ever gets deleted (which can happen and result in the internet losing valuable info).

If I can add to it in the future and make it better, I will do so.


Black Hawk Bow Models

This is a list of bows made by the Cravotta Brothers.

A lot is not known about all the models, so this will be an ongoing project to find, and list the models and their specs, so check back once in a while to see if anything has been updated.

As you can see, there's a lot of confusion with the decals and model numbers, etc.

Black Hawk Models
  • Chief H304- 1957 Model. Oval limb decal.
  • Chief H672- August 1957 Oval limb decal
  • Chief XC55 August 1959 angle grip Oval limb decal.
  • Yellow Jacket X448- March 1957 Oval limb decal.
  • Yellow Jacket Y706- Oct. 1958 Oval limb decal.
  • Yellow Jacket Y454- March 1957 Oval limb decal
  • Yellow Jacket Y042- June 1958 Oval Limb decal
  • Warrior R101-1956 model Oval limb Decal
  • Warrior W659- 1964 model Rectangle limb decal
  • Warrior W293- April 1963 Rectangle limb decal
  • Warrior R177- 1950's model Oval limb decal
  • Warrior R173 June 1957 Oval limb decal
  • Avenger A-1000-SEC May 1968 Rectangle limb decal- Could SEC means a second? 52" long
  • Avenger March 1971 stamped with the letter "S"- perhaps another second? 52" long
  • Avenger A4765 May 1970 Rectangle limb decal
  • Avenger A1174 Nov. 1974 round Black Hawk & handwritten style decal
  • Avenger A1273 Dec. 1973 Handwritten style limb decal
  • Avenger A1175 Nov. 1975 Round Black Hawk and Round Avenger by Black Hawk decal
  • Avenger A572 May 1972 Round Black Hawk riser decal & handwritten style limb decal
  • Bee N524- Nov. 1956 Oval limb decal.
  • Bee E365- Nov. 1957 Oval limb decal
  • Bee M549-1957 model Oval limb Decal.
  • Bee ?030- 1959 model Oval limb decal.
  • Bee Deluxe Dec. 1974 No limb decal. Hand written style limb decal
  • Short Bee- AB-760-S May 1966 Rectangle limb decal
  • Bee ASB 3657 no date. Longer 70's model Bee. 66" long. Rectangle Limb Decal
  • Wasp S929 1957 model Oval limb decal.
  • Wasp D207 Feb. 1958 Oval limb decal.
  • Wasp D756 March 1958 Oval limb decal
  • Hornet K771- Oct. 1956 Oval Serial# limb decal.
  • Hornet XB165- Aug. 1959 Oval Limb decal
  • Hornet K857- Sept. 1957 Oval limb decal.
  • Short Hornet SH2784- 10/02/1964 Rectangle limb decal.
  • Short Hornet SH1384 - 10/04/1968 Rectangle limb decal
  • Hornet Special 1968 model rectangle riser decal.
  • Hornet Special T/D HS575 Rectangle limb decal
  • Hornet Special H.S.2739 Oct. 1 1964 Rectangle limb decal
  • Brave F923 Jan. 1960 decal unknown
  • Scorpion BS2791- Sept. 1970 Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion CS219- 1967 Model Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion 2-tone riser 1971 model Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion DS3735 Jan. 1969 Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion DS430 1968 model. Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion BS826 Nov. 1965 Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion AS964 March 1964 Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion CBS3603 year unknown Rectangle limb decal
  • Scorpion 259 Feb. 1959 Round limb decal
  • Scout Hunter SC234 1970 model Rectangle limb decal
  • Scout Hunter SC159 April 1969 Rectangle limb decal.
  • Firebolt Sept. 1974 no riser decal. hand written style decal
  • Firebolt Aug. 1972 S.L. 52" Hand written style decal.
  • Firebolt Feb. 1972 S.L. 52" Ink stamped on riser: Firebolt by Black Hawk
  • Mosquito 1968 model. Rectangle limb decal. Imitation horn tips.
  • Flea
  • Unknown Ash2521- 1968 model Rectangle riser decal. no limb decal.
  • 650 K355- April 1960 RED/YELLOW oval limb decal.
  • Brave- F286- January 1958 Oval Limb Decal

Black Hawk Galaxie Models
  • Mars- 1973 model round Blackhawk riser decal (possibly inlay), round Galaxie Mars limb decal.
  • Mars- M773 round Black Hawk riser decal, round Galaxie Mars limb decal
  • Mars- M1174 round Black Hawk riser decal, Round Galaxie Mars limb decal
  • Pluto- P2665 1968 model Galaxie rectangle riser decal, round Galaxie Pluto limb decal
  • Venus V874 Dec 1966 Rectangle Galaxie riser decal, round Galaxie Venus limb decal
  • Apollo Aug 1971 Rectangle Galaxie riser decal, round Galaxie Apollo limb decal
  • Nike 575 May 1975 64" Round Galaxie Nike limb decal
Black Hawk also made a variety of models for other manufacturers.
Martin Models
  • Hunter Mark II Feb. 1974 Round limb decal.
Doug Kittredge Models
  • Signature Hunter V773- July 1973
Feline Archery Models
  • Panther Hunter A1074 Oct. 1974 (Black Hawk Avenger made for Feline Archery)
Red Head
  • Thunderbird Feb. 1, 1958

Time Lapse Archery Videos x 4

For fun today I ended up doing a wee bit of photography. I have been experimenting with Time Lapse videos lately, and thus decided I wanted to make some time lapse videos of the Toronto Archery Range.

The videos below were all made on November 19th 2017.

During the 4th video a gust of wind knocked over the tripod. Hence why it goes dark briefly. So we did what archers typically do and blamed the wind. ;)

Time Lapse Video 1



Time Lapse Video 2



Time Lapse Video 3



Time Lapse Video 4




My Bowhunting / Archery Magazines Collection

Okay so I have quite a few archery books, but honestly - I have waaaaaay more magazines on the topic, mostly pertaining to bowhunting.

So I decided today to make a list of all my magazines thus far. (I have a subscription to one of them.)

I should also note that an article I wrote years ago was published earlier this year in Archery Focus Magazine. Which is ironic because I have never even SEEN that magazine in person in Canada. No stores in Canada seem to sell it. I managed to do this small feat of archery thanks to knowing the editor socially, he is a fellow archery instructor I have consulted with in the past. (I do have a great book of his though, "Precision Archery", which I totally recommend buying, regardless of what style of archery you practice.)

So back to the topic at hand... Let me grab a pile of magazines and lets get this Archery Magazine list started.

Note - In the future I want to add more notes to this page about articles I found to be particular useful / interesting. For now I just want to make the list. I can add detailed notes later when I have more time.

Traditional Bowhunter Magazine
2018 Dec-Jan - Food Plots, Hawaiian Quiver, Arctic Gear (they send out upcoming magazines well ahead of schedule. It is November and already I have received the Dec-Jan issue in the mail.)

2017 Oct-Nov - Flemish Twist Bowstring

2017 Aug-Sep - Better Anchoring, the Crescent Arrowhead

2017 Jun-Jul - Obsidian Arrowheads, Archery Golf

2017 Apr-May - Refurbishing Wood Arrows
2017 Feb-Mar - Two Piece Recurve Bow
2017 Dec-Jan - Brain Tanned Knife Sheath, Aesthetics of Hunting
2016 Oct-Nov - I really love the cover painting on this one. I even wrote emails back and forth to the editor about it. 
* I seem to have misplaced Jun-Jul and Aug-Sep 2015, I cannot find them.*
2016 Apr-May - Backing a Bow with Turkey Feathers

2016 Feb-Mar -  Backing a Bow with Snakeskin
2016 Dec-Jan - Restoring Old Bows

2015 Oct-Nov - Stone Points, History of the Deflex-Reflex Bow
* I seem to have misplaced Aug-Sep 2015, I cannot find it. *

2015 Jun-Jul - Brain Tanned Quiver, Part 1

2015 Apr-May - Dogwood Arrows

2015 Feb-Mar - Paper Tuning
2015 Dec-Jan  - Repairing 3D Targets

2014 Oct-Nov - Lovely painting on the cover
2014 Aug-Sep - Simple Spine Tester

Notes - So Traditional Bowhunter is the only one of the magazines that I have a subscription for. So I know the magazines that are missing are *somewhere*, I am just not sure where. Possibly tucked into a bigger archery book. Perhaps under some other book, alone and forgotten. Maybe all 3 of the missing magazines are hiding some place together. Won't know until I find them.

As you may have guessed Traditional Bowhunter (aka TradBow) publishes 6 times per year. I forget what the subscription cost is, but it is well worth it.

TradArchers' World Magazine
Fall 2014 - Plains Indian Sinew Backed Bow, Part 1
Winter 2014 - Plains Indian Sinew Backed Bow, Part 2
Spring 2015 - History of the Steel Bow
Summer 2015 - Laminated Recurve Part 1
Fall 2015 - Jerry Simmons Obituary (Master Tracker and Hunter), Laminated Recurve Part 2
Winter 2015 - Laminated Recurve Part 3
Spring 2016 - Building a Bow Quiver, Scottish Longbows
Fall 2017 - Longbow Ground Blinds, Accuracy Tips by Bob Wesley

Note - For people who are into bowmaking, TradArchers' World is good magazine to be reading. Published 4 times per year this is a magazine I should probably get a subscription to, but I have not bothered as of yet to do so. Probably a good idea to get it as it has more articles about bowmaking and equipment making than Traditional Bowhunter does.

Bowhunting World Magazine
Jun 2015 - 2015 Equipment Guide, #3
Sep 2015 - 2015 Equipment Guide, #4
Mar 2017 - 2017 Equipment Guide, #1

Note - Bowhunting World Magazine (BWM) publishes equipment guides multiple times per year. I really only buy it for the equipment reviews, which are mostly related to compound bows. I do however wish that they only published one big guide only once per year instead of splitting it up. I wouldn't bother getting a subscription to this one. I usually only try to buy a compound bow equipment guide once per year.

Petersen's Bowhunting Magazine
Mar 2014 - 2014 Equipment Guide
Jan-Feb 2015 - Practice Hunting by looking for Shed Antlers
Jun 2015 - Clutch Shots, Practicing Tips, Target Durability Tests
Jan 2016 - 2016 Equipment Guide
Jun 2016 - How to Paper Tune, Cam Synchronizing, Boosting Accuracy using Tuning Tricks

Note - While Petersen's Bowhunting (PBM) does offer annual equipment guides (usually during the winter), they also sometimes have useful articles about bowhunting skills and tuning compound bows. (Maybe someday I might publish something in their magazine about compound bow repair, as it seems like a topic many compound shooters could learn about.)

If I had to choose, I think the PBM's equipment guides are better. They also have more actual useful archery tips when compared to BWM. It might make some good sense for me to get a subscription to PBM.

Ontario Out of Doors (OOD) Magazine
Aug 2015 - includes article "Way of the Bow"

Note - I normally don't buy OOD Magazine. I made an exception because of the title article being promoted on the front cover. Most of the time the magazine is about rifle hunting and fishing, so I usually skip it. I probably should read more articles about fishing however, so there are some benefits to that I suppose.


Publishing in Archery Magazines

A little goal for me to do... try to publish articles in all the magazines listed above. I have already scratched off Archery Focus Magazine from the list, so might as well try and see if other people like my writing.

How to Fix a Dryfired Crossbow

Okay so someone contacted me recently regarding a crossbow which had been dryfired and was wondering if I could fix it, since I currently fix compound bows.

So I normally don't fix crossbows and I made the mistake of mentioning it to my wife, and she vetoed the idea (besides the point I already have 3 crossbows in the house and have a hobby of building them). Apparently she puts her foot down on having any more crossbows in the house. My limit is 3. No more than that.

Below are several photos they sent me of the crossbow which had been dryfired.




So I might not be able to fix it myself, but I can certainly provide instructions for HOW TO FIX IT and that way the owner can fix it themselves using the instructions below.

How to Reset the Bowstring a Dryfired Crossbow

Or... How to Remove an Old Bowstring and Add a New Bowstring on a Crossbow

Honestly the steps below work for both.

Step One - Reduce the Poundage, if possible.

On a compound bow there is typically a way to reduce the poundage. You do this with a Allen key (aka Hex key) at the point where the limbs meet the stock. See the photo below. However many crossbows don't necessarily have such an option. However if it does, now is a good time to use it.

If the poundage is low enough the bowstring should be significantly less taut and more easy to remove. Skip to Step Three if you were able to do this. If the bowstring is still very taut, you are going to need a bow press, in which case go to Step Two.

Note - Do not remove the limbs entirely. You only want to reduce the poundage, not remove the bow limbs entirely.


Step One B - Use a Dummy Bowstring.

I am adding this as an optional way to reduce the poundage. This is a method you can do if you don't have a bow press. It is a bit more of an unorthodox method, which is why I am making this section in different colours of text, to note that people should use caution when using this method. This method only works on crossbows however. This method won't work on a regular compound bow unless you also have a tillering stick (totally different topic, tillering sticks are used by bowyers during the tillering process, but that is something to talk about another day).

What you do is get a nice long bowstring that is strong enough for your crossbow and place it in a loop going around the axles, tying the ends together in a Reef Knot (aka, a Square Knot). It should be completely slack and extra long so that the string can reach about 3/4s or 4/5ths of the way to the cocking mechanism without even pulling.

Then you pull back the dummy bowstring the extra 1/4 or 1/5th to a cocking position on your crossbow, thus causing your normal bowstring to now become slack - and thus make it easier to remove or adjust.

When you are later ready to remove the dummy bowstring, simply pull back on the string with your hand to make it tight, hold on, release the trigger and hold it down, and then slowly let down until it is completely slack again. Loosen and remove the Reef Knot, keep the dummy bowstring for the next time you might need it.

Step Two - Place the Crossbow in a Bow Press and Tighten.

If you cannot reduce the poundage then you are probably going to need a bow press. Pretty much a necessity with a lot of modern crossbows. If you decide to use this method it is probably best you skip Step One entirely.

I recently wrote a post about Five Ways to Make a Homemade Bow Press, which I recommend reading as it is certainly cheaper to just build a bow press than go out and try to find / buy one.

The trick about bow presses is that you might only need it the one time. So it doesn't really make any sense to buy a $200 bow press just to use it one time.

Once tightened, your bowstring should be slack and ready to be removed.

An example of a homemade bow press that works on crossbows.

Step Three - Remove the Bowstring completely or partially.

See the loop on the cam in the 3rd photo? Not the loops that fit on the axle of the limbs, but the one which loops like a 9 on to the middle of the cam itself. Start by removing that and unwind or untangle it from anything.

Depending on the situation you might only need to partially remove the bowstring. If this is the case, awesome. It should be a fairly simple task of removing one section of the bowstring, rewrapping it around the cam, and replacing the loop.

eg. If you can get away with leaving parts of the bowstring still fed through the stock, good, just leave that in place. Basically if you can leave much of it already in place, please do. Less work for later.

The cam loop should always be the first thing you remove, and the last thing you put back in place.

Step Four - Carefully Place the New Bowstring.

Note that I said "New Bowstring". The steps described on this page work for either resetting your old string or adding a new one. This is a good point to decide whether you want to keep your old bowstring, or use a new one. If there is heavy or medium fraying on your bowstring, probably time for a new one. Minor barely noticeable fraying? Not such a big deal. Crossbow bowstrings are rated for many multiple times the poundage of the actual crossbow. If one strand snaps it is not biggie. It is when multiple have snapped that you need to start worrying. (Sort of like the front and back brakes on a bicycle, ideally both should work - but if one doesn't work then the other set of brakes should save your life.)

Okay, so this is the tricky part. Modern compound crossbows do not make this part easy.
  • Start with the axle loops.
  • Feed the bowstring through the gap in the stock.
  • Following a diagram if possible, correctly rewrap the bowstring around the cams. If you don't have a diagram, find some good high resolution photos of your model of crossbow and then follow the setup there and match it exactly.
  • Double check that everything is correctly in place before proceeding to the next steps.
  • Place the cam loops last. Depending on the bow press you are using, you may want to place the hardest to reach one first. Sometimes bow presses are designed in a way that makes it annoying to reach one of them. This way when you place the last cam loop it should be easy to reach.
  • Triple check everything is correctly in place.

Step Five - Loosen the Bow Press or Retighten the Poundage.

Really depends which steps you did, Step 1 or Step 2 or both. Or Step 1 B. Whatever.

Once your crossbow is out of the bow press / back to its original poundage you should find a safe place to fire a few shots with it (with actual crossbow bolts this time) to make sure everything is in good working order.

Step Six - Never Dryfire a Compound Crossbow Ever Again.

Probably the most important step.

The correct / safe way to uncock a crossbow is to load a bolt and fire a shot into a target (or into a sandbag, a good patch of dirt with no rocks, etc). Never dryfire it.

Even if a manufacturer is bragging about how great and durable their crossbows are, you should never ever dry fire one. You are just asking to be the exception, the one person who has theirs break. Don't be a dumbass and don't make yourself into a statistic.

This is one of the reasons I really like Excalibur Crossbows - they use recurve limbs instead of cams. If the bowstring ever comes off, then you can more easily place it back on. Easy to fix, super powerful.

The whole point of compound crossbows is to make them more compact, but to me I would rather have something that is easy to repair. As someone who makes my own crossbows, they are also easier to build if they are straight or recurved limbs, with no cams.


Note to Self

Sometime in the future I should try making a double limbed crossbow (similar to a Penobscot bow). That should be fun.

Lately I keep thinking of kewl science fair projects I could do with my son in the future when he is older. I think that would be an interesting science fair project... not sure if schools would appreciate kids bringing crossbows to school for a science fair however, even if it was a bizarre looking Penobscot-style crossbow.

Considering how schools already have so many easily upset snowflakes these days, I can only imagine what it will be like 10 years from now.

Probably should build a catapult or trebuchet instead. That would be okay. Or maybe a ballista, like the Roman style ballista below. Oooooo!

Traditional Archery Books Worth Reading?

I have been constructing a list of archery books with the plan of eventually reading all of them and reviewing them.

Of the list shown here, I have read the top two so far.
Dan Bertalan's "Traditional Bowyers Encyclopedia : the bowhunting and bowmaking world of the nation's top crafters of longbows and recurves" (Which is kind of a dry read, but it goes into great detail about the bowmaking process of a lot of American bowyers. With respect to bow making however, that book is not as good as the Traditional Bowyer's Bible - Volumes I to IV, which is a way better series of books to read if you want to get into making bows. Bertalan's book in contrast is more about specific American manufacturers.)

Sam Fadala's "Traditional Archery" - which is more of a generic book on the subject. I was not impressed by it. (I read the one version of this book and then skimmed another version of it which was an earlier edition.)

The rest below I hope to read eventually.
Monte Burch's "Making Native American Hunting, Fighting and Survival Tools"

Jim Hamm's "Bows & arrows of the native Americans : a complete step-by-step guide to wooden bows, sinew-backed bows, composite bows, strings, arrows & quivers"

Mark Elbroch's "Wilderness survival : living off the land with the clothes on your back and the knife on your belt"

H. Lea Lawrence's "The archer's and bowhunter's bible"

If you are serious about getting really good at archery however there is one book I always recommend, even though it is not specifically about traditional archery.
Steve Ruis and Claudia Stevenson "Precision Archery" (While this book doesn't deal much with the history of archery, it is by far the best book when it comes to discussing form, accuracy, technique, coaching, competing, etc - at least insofar as Olympic archery and compound archery goes. It did touch on traditional shooting methods, but didn't go into great detail. I would however still recommend that people doing ANY kind of archery that they should still read it.)
I have read other archery books (and magazines) on a variety of topics, but I am not about to spend several hours typing out all the names of the books so instead I am going summarize the topics:
  • Zen Archery
  • Japanese Kyudo
  • Archery History
  • Compound Bowhunting
  • Traditional Bowhunting
  • Longbow
I have yet to find a really good book on the topic of horsebows. It is on my To Do List however.

Five Ways to make a Homemade Bow Press

Wood Homemade Bow Press
So awhile back in October I made a note of writing a post titled "How to Make a Homemade Bow Press". But I never wrote it.

So I thought about it, and since YOU - the readers - might not like a particular design due to the materials I determined it might make more sense to show 5 different ways to make a homemade bow press, that way you the reader can decide which design you like best - and it thus best suits your needs with respect to materials, price, time, etc.

#1. The Steel Bow Press

Below is a nice steel design (and well painted), which tightens using a crank on a threaded piece of metal.


#2. Portable Bow Press

Below is a nice portable design, handy for having in the bush or taking up north to the cabin.


#3. Clamp Bow Press

Who needs a bow press when you have a long clamp? A few minor modifications and it is also good to go, and fairly portable too. The 3rd photo below is the same basic design, but using wood instead of metal for several key parts.



#4. Wood + Weight or Bungee Cord Design

Okay, so the design below uses a bungee cord - but if it was me doing, I would skip the bungee cord and have a slot on the top where you could place dumbbell weights. However no one can deny the design below does work, as that is a compound crossbow with a lot more poundage involved.


#5. Bungee Cord Attachments Bow Press

The design below is very portable, and has a similar design to #2 above, but takes it a step further to make it even more portable.


Extra Note for Fun

Also while I was searching for designs I accidentally found this... which was so awesome I had to save and share it here. Because who doesn't want to shoot a wooden compound bow, wherein even the cams are made of wood.



Five Ways to make an Off Grid Wood Lathe

So I have been wanting a foot powered wood lathe for awhile and have been researching different ways to make one.

One of the designs I like best is to use a piece of flexible wood (or maybe bamboo?) as a bow which bends and provides the spring power of the wood lathe. See the designs below to see what I mean.

#1. The Treadle Wood Lathe

This design is a bit more complicated, but works like a foot treadle sewing machine. Pros and Cons: The wood being turned remains in a constant circular motion.



A Very Large Treadle Wood Lathe


#2. The Bow Powered Wood Lathe

I have seen similar designs elsewhere. The downward stroke of the foot spins the lathe in one direction, and then the bow + string pulls the lathe the opposite way, creating an alternating direction every downward and upward stroke. Pros and Cons - Conserves energy, but that alternating direction thing requires some timing on your part to maximize energy and speed.




#2B. Alternative Bow Lathe Design

Less efficient but it works. This is hand-powered, so it would be easier if you had a friend working the bow.


#3. The Wind Powered Wood Lathe

This is actually just a variation of the Bow Lathe, but instead of the power coming from your foot, you are attaching something to the bow that blows in the wind easily, causing the bow to move whenever the wind is gusting. This "gust powered" wood lathe in theory only works on windy / gusty days.

An alternative to this would be to use a windmill or vertical axis turbine (shown below) to power your wood lathe instead. The turbine then turns a bicycle wheel which is rigged up to your wood lathe via either bicycle chain or a rubber belt.


#4. Hydro Powered Wood Lathe

I couldn't find any examples of this, but in theory someone could build one if they really wanted to. This just need a river on their property and to make an overshot water wheel.



#5. Bicycle Powered Wood Lathe

A fairly simple design... but this requires you have a friend who is willing to do the pedaling.


Bonus

Check out this giant lathe.


Bowstring came off a compound bow which was dryfired - best way to fix that?

Okay, so someone recently contacted me for compound bow repairs regarding their Bear compound bow which had been dryfired.

Note - I don't ask WHO dryfired the bow - I will just assume the owner accidentally gave it to a friend who immediately dryfired it before they could warn them not to...


When a compound bow is dryfired it rips the cables / bowstring off of the cams (pulleys) and can even damage the axle(s) which hold the cams. There is also a chance that the limbs and other parts of the bow could also be damaged.

In this case however the axles and various other parts were undamaged, only the bowstring came off.

Therefore this is actually a fairly easy thing to fix.

STEP ONE - MEASURE THE POUNDAGE

Determine the poundage of the bow by measuring the placement of the limbs on the riser. (This way when you reduce the poundage you will be able to return the bow to its original poundage later.) For best results I recommend measuring both top and bottom limbs to make sure they were even in the first place. It is possible that one or both of the limbs have been loosened during the dryfire, so the limbs should really be "reset" anyway to ensure they are a consistent poundage.

Write down the measurements just in case you get distracted and forget.

If the bow was already in good condition and strung, you could use a bow scale to measure the poundage instead, but since it is unstrung and needs to be strung, measuring the position of the limbs/riser is your better bet.

STEP TWO - COUNT THE TURNS

Slowly reduce the poundage of the limbs using an Allen key. Start with the top limb and do 1 full turn. Then the bottom limb and 1 full turn. Repeat the process while counting the number of full turns.

Keep track of the number of full turns it takes to lower the compound bow to its lowest possible poundage setting. Take note if it takes an extra 1/6th, 1/3rd, 1/2, 2/3rds, or 5/6ths of a turn to do this.

Afterwards note down on paper that it took X# of full turns (+ whatever fraction) to reach the lowest point. Knowing this number will be handy when you are later returning the bow to its original poundage and is basically a secondary method of checking that the poundage ends up matching the original poundage.

STEP THREE - RESET THE BOWSTRING ON THE CAMS

You need to wrap the cables/bowstring around the cams correctly - how exactly will sometimes vary on the manufacturer and model. When in doubt, consult photos of the cams of the model in question. If unable to do that you will want to look at how the cam is designed and determine which way the cables / bowstring should be properly attached / wrapped around the cams.

During this you may need to use some physical effort to "string" the bow. This is why you lowered the poundage however, to make the stringing part so much easier. Depending on what the lowest possible setting is this could be really easy or really hard, and thus this process might still require some grunting and physical labour. There are some tricks to doing this however. It is obviously easier to use a bow press, however that can also be unnecessary if you know the other tricks of doing this.

Trick #1. You can lock the cams in place using bolts - like in the image below. This makes attaching the bowstring much easier by placing the pressure on the bolts individually.

Bolts locking the cams in place on a Model T Jennings Compound Bow
Trick #2. In the event you cannot physically get the cams to lock in place, cannot string it for whatever reason, etc - you can just build a homemade bow press.

Homemade Bow Press made of Wood, Chain, Metal
Homemade Bow Press made of Metal

Note To Self - Make a future post about "How to Make a Homemade Bow Press". In the meantime, just go Google that topic as there are plenty of examples online for how to make your own.

Trick #3. A quick and dirty temporary alternative to a bow press is to attach a strong bungee cord to both ends of the bow and clamp it in place so it cannot be accidentally. Then take a metal rod and twist it into the middle of the bungee cord so that it tightens. Keep tightening until it is suitable tight enough for your needs. Then clamp the metal rod in place. Reset the bowstring, unclamp the rod and untwist it gradually, remove the clamps for the bungee cord, remove the bungee cord... and done. It is now strung.

I have never needed to use option #3, but I am listing it for educational purposes.

STEP FOUR - RESET THE POUNDAGE TO ORIGINAL POSITION

Start with the top limb and do one full turn. Then the bottom limb one full turn. Repeat this process until you have completed the full number of turns (+ the fraction if any).

Double-check that the measurement back in Step One is the same. It is? Good. Unless you did something wrong and forgot to do something it should be the same.

Model T Jennings
STEP FIVE - TAKE PHOTOGRAPHS

Honestly, recording what the bow looks like when in its full strung position + desired poundage is just a good habit to get into in my opinion. It is visual record keeping. For me it is an excuse to take photos, write a blog post and record everything. For you, it could end up being handy in the future if you ever need to repair your compound bow a 2nd time.


CONCLUSIONS

So there you go. It is now restrung.

Was it really that hard? No, not really. Helps if you know what you are doing and confident about your knowledge of the topic.

If you need compound bow repairs in Toronto, you know who to contact.

$40 per hour + the cost of parts (if any). Feel free to compare my hourly rate with what other people are charging.

Bow Scale for Tillering / Bow Making

Okay so one of the things I have done in the past with respect to bow making is that I would not use a bow scale for measuring poundage. Instead I would cheat and use 20, 25 or 30 lb dumbbells - which I admit, is not a very professional way of checking the poundage.

During the bow making course I took two winters ago I determined that having a bow scale is very handy to have - unfortunately they don't really sell bow scales in the vast majority of stores.

Finally, after much time and procrastination, I went online looking for a bow scale and found one on Amazon:

Bow Scale on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/Allen-100-Pound-Digital-Scale-Black/dp/B00AU6I7J0

So I have finally put that on my To Buy List - and sent a link to my wife so that she can possibly buy it for Xmas. You know, because it is so hard to buy gifts for me... not really. Handtools or archery equipment = Happy Husband.

So if you are into bowmaking and your family is looking for gift ideas, this is a good thing to add to your Xmas List.


Six Treehouse Homes

Some of the more popular posts from previous years have been on the topic of Treehouse Homes.

So for the people who really like that idea, here are six more designs for Treehouse Homes.







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