I’d been wanting to craft a horse-head bow rack for a while, but didn’t have a table saw for thin rips. When I was recently given a crusty old table saw by someone who no longer needed it, I figured it was time. And I had some cherry wood available.
The project was time consuming but simple. I began with a thin rip from a 2×4 for the backing. For the horse brackets, I also used 2×4 which I cut to a rough shape on the bandsaw.
I mostly used a dremel for the carving and midway through my hopes were high. I had decided I would send it to Marko Suhonen (TrophyBow1) in Finland. Alas, the fine details proved too difficult. As my first attempt to carve anything but an alien head, I found that the details looked sharp when rough, but the finishing work (sanding) would remove them. I went through the process of finishing and refinishing several times before giving up and leaving it as it was.
I got a bit lazy and drilled through the brackets, which really reduced the aesthetics. This can be mostly fixed with plugs, but I’m not sure I’ll bother. While I had decided it wasn’t good enough to send to Marko, I had a change of mind and thought I’d offer anyway. He could discard it if he wished, or burn it to stay warm. Finland gets nippy. But I’m not sure how to contact him. .
While I doubt it’s the case with Marko, I’ve learned that many folks tend to not appreciate free stuff. Not that anyone necessarily should, especially if it’s crap or they’re simply uninterested, but that’s how it often is. It certainly was with Armin Hirmer, who refused to even mention my name when, for inexplicable reasons, he irreverently mustered the effort to show a (admittedly not very nice) quiver I sent and deliberately didn’t mention the thumb rings that accompanied it. That was a bad quiver. This is a pretty reasonable bow rack.
I enjoy making things for free, particularly when they please the recipient. Many of the things I’ve made I wouldn’t and perhaps couldn’t have made for money. I hope to send it to Finland.