Glenn Newell Bow: New Digital Camera Adventures 1

[erron]

Title says it all: I've just taken delivery of my dig. camera. Specs. 3.1 megapixels, 3X optical zoom, 40 second movie mode (stay tuned for some shorts) and lots of other stuff I don't understand. I'm a bit rough at this stage, and the piccies reflect that - poor lighting and focus, etc.

Anyway, here's a couple of shots of Phil Stubbington's Glenn Newell reflex/deflex longbow. Lovely bow, a real shooter...



Erron

[MIK]

Nice looking bow there erron, but they wouldn’t be blasphemous carbon arrows in that quiver would they??? :-):-):-)

MIK

[erron]

Yes, unfortunately the owner shoots on the Dark Side, MIK

And personally, I dislike bow quivers, even though they're practical. In this instance it gets in the way of seeing the bow well, if you know what i mean.

Erron

[Dennis La Varenne]

Hooray all,
I have been seriously considering buying a digital camera of about those specs too, Erron. I really only want it for uploading pics onto this site and perhaps others. I like not having to develop film and being able to press the 'cancel' button to get rid of a bad shot.

However, I want a decent macro ability for taking close-ups. One weekend, my girlfriend and I spent the whole time going around looking at what was available. Some have a macro ability going down to 1cm in focus, but is not really practical when you consider that you still have to get a light source under the lens. Anything from 5 - 10 cm should be good enough.

Erron has shown me Glenn's bow depicted here. It has some really very good workmanship indeed, especially with the purple heart inlay into the riser and the thin maple highlight strips. It is a bow of the popular deflex-reflex design. When braced, most of the reflex is gone save for a slight amount in the outer 1/4 of the limbs which retains only about 1/2" of curvature over 9 inches.

Unbraced and laid on its belly on a table, the deflex extends only 1/2" behind the handle and the tips at the nock are 4 1/2" forward of the rearmost curve of the deflex.

I can well remember Glenn's apprenticeship years and this little bow shows that he has really learned his craft indeed. In laminated bows, I always look at the thickness and evenness of the gluelines, and these are really first rate. I also took some time to examine the evenness of the shaping of the inlayed pieces and the highlight strips and they are faultless.

Another area where you can see the skill level of the craftsman is in the treatment of the tip overlays, and those on this little bow are again first rate and beautifully shaped and blended.

There are overlays on the belly and back of this bow comprising maple overlaid with purpleheart which have been feathered into the backing and facing glass which have been expertly done, and importantly, the feathering has not resulted in the telltale grider dip into the glass where the feathering ends which is often the case. Very deft work here.

I understand that the bloke who ordered it was disappointed that the draw weight was a bit under, but as far as I could ascertain against my scale which I have had checked (it throws a constant 4lbs under throughout its range), I seriously doubt that it is more than 2lb lower at worst than its stated 56lbs @ 30".

I don't know that that is even noticeable performancewise in real life. I would only be concerned with 5lbs or greater. A bad loose will lose you that equivalent in draw weight.

It has a length of 64" nock to nock as measured along the back surface of the bow (braced or unbraced doesn't matter - the difference is hardly detectable), which is the standard adopted by the US Archery Manufacturer's Organization which seems to have become the international standard.

There is some milky streaking in the glass which is just noticeable, but this is not a bowyer's fault. It is a production fault from Gordon's manufacturing process of clear glass and there is nothing that can be done about it. When used over darker limb core laminates, it shows more, that's all. However, I hardly regard it as significantly unsightly, and personally, wouldn't give it another thought.

The only 'blemishes' which my eye could pick up were only things which very experienced bowyers would nitpick over as points of craftsmanship and which the ordinary archer would not ever see without a very trained eye - like artists debating technique and style.

If I had my digital camera now, I would have taken some pics without bow quiver and particularly of the tip overlay detail which is really good. Treatment of tip overlays is rated among bowyers of the laminated school of bowyery as one of the telltale signs of craftsmanship. Those on this little bow are very nice indeed and the purple heart is nicely blended into the dark hardwood base which also forms the major part of the riser. It looks like one of the ebonies.

Erron and I did some preliminary speed tests using my Chrony chronograph, and early in the testing showed arrows in the 470 - 490gn range from his 28" draw threw 164 - 169 fps, and just below 150fps from my 26 inch draw. One of my 750gn hunters threw 134 fps from my 26 inch draw which surprised me. But, we were losing light quickly, so these results can not be regarded as conclusive. Sometimes the arrows did not register at all.

A force-draw test showed that this bow put on from 2-2.5 lbs per inch through its range out to its designed 30 inches. This would meet the 'smooth' criteria by anyone's standard. For physical reasons, Erron is restricted to fairly lightweight bows, but he did not seem to have the slightest problem controlling this bow which is about 8lbs heavier than his normal range.

This is not a centre-shot bow, but there was not the slightest flight problem with the massively overspined arrow which still drilled the compressed cardboard carton butt in my yard to a depth of almost 18 inches. The big brute came out like a dart. With its leather arrowplate, it is 1/8" out of centre-shot


Dennis La Varenne

[erron]

Thanks for the technical detail Dennis! It should be noted the bow in this photo is a different bow to the one we tested, but of the same design. The one we tested was an earlier delivery to the owner of this bow. And yes, although it’s well over my current draw weight of mid 40’s it drew really smooth, and gave me no problem at all. Shooting it confirmed that I’m ready to move up in poundage, I just have to move up a little in ‘dollerage’!

By the way Dennis, the nikon shoots macro down to 1.5 inches. How about I come out and we put it through its paces one night this week, taking some snaps of some of your fine bows! Let me know.

Erron

[Dennis La Varenne]

Erron,

I'll email you shortly. At the moment, I have only the one bow and a few unfinished staves that I owe people.

Dennis La Varenne

[Griffo]

I must say that it's great to have someone describe in great detail, the quality of Glenn's workmanship I knew to exist from the very first time I shot one of his bows. It's hard to describe but I believe they just feel and shoot so much better than any other trad bow I've shot, I 'felt' it the very first time. Now I'm not by any means saying I'm an expert, just that I've tried a number of tradbows and Glenn's have blown them all away...

thanks Dennis, I appreciate hearing it in detail.

Griffo