White Feather Lark wood ILF riser

[dougedwards]

A while back I posted pics of my fractured Tradtech Pinnacle II wood riser that split right in two at full draw. It was a dreadful experience. I thought about purchasing a metal replacement but the thought of cold steel reminded me of my compound shooting days and I decided to stick with the beauty of wood and pray that I would not experience a repeat performance.

This isn't really a review as I have only practiced shooting my recurve with my new White Feather Lark ILF riser from Alternatives Archery in Great Britain a few sessions but I really like it so far. It took almost a month to get to my door from England but the total cost for this wood riser was only $188.

The medium grip is very comfortable and I wrapped it with a little lambskin to absorb sweat. I was concerned about the pad angles but my #40@25" Kaya KStorms longs drew very nicely on this 19" riser. Going to take this set up to the next 3-D shoot on Saturday. A few pics:. That is my shooting glove wrapped around the bottom limb.

[Graps]

Sure is perdy.

[Elkman]

Nice!
Good luck at the shoot.

[Grizzly]

I like that riser. I'd like it even more if you could get the wrinkles out of your grip wrap I've never run into lambs wool for a wrap. Sounds like a good idea. I always just used a roll of hockey stick tape. Once, I think I might have even used a wrap made for fishing poles. Although, I only used them on metal risers unless I wanted to change the angle of a wood grip.

You mentioned the limb pad angles. If I'm reading them right, it looks like they may work to your advantage being a bit more vertical than laid back. From what little I know from working with Warf bows, the old Hoyt Spectra/Rambo riser had limb pockets that were more straight up and down than layed back (like yours), and they worked best with folks with longer draws like you have. The Bear Blackbear riser was sort of middle of the road/average shooter, and some Darton risers really leaned back and were great for short draw shooters.

With that angle, it will let the limbs work fully, getting the most out of them - Especially since the riser is a little shorter. That may also bump your poundage up a pound or two. 19" sounds nice. My Hoyt TD-3 Warf is 20. Many were 21 and the olympic risers that the limbs are measured on are 25". I suppose it matters as to how much more you can bend those limbs back at full draw and what they were designed for.

Alot of guys were overstressing limbs with short risers and alot of limb pad angle - especially with long draws.

Now my 27 1/2" - 28" draw might not get the full potential out of your set up. You may.

[dougedwards]

Yeah, I may not stay with the lambskin grip tape. You see it wrapped high upon the shelf side as my bow holding hand tends to drift up almost to a dangerous position at the shot. But this causes a diagonal wrap at that point of the grip and a lateral wrap down the riser. I guess the wrinkles are inherent with this type of procedure but I should have cut the leather into two pieces to avoid wrinkles. Previously, I have used tennis racket tape (no hockey players in Virginia) or friction tape rubbed out with talcum powder for the grip.

Good point about the pad angles. The Korean made carbon limbs draw really smoothly with this set up and with my 29 3/4" draw is probably pulling a little short of 40# which is right where I need to be. My 3-D arrows are 390 gr carbons and seem to be shooting pretty quickly although I have not yet shot them through a chronograph. I do this stuff for fun and not about extreme precision as it was when I was younger. I gave up on trying to straighten wood arrows long ago.

Many years ago, when I first investigated shooting traditional bows by inquiring of some trad archers at an archery shoot, I was told that I could get into trad with a minimum investment. Started with a Samick Sage recurve which is a very adequate bow but of course, I kept moving up until my set ups cost into the thousands. Like all sports, you can spend as much as you please and I did. Now I have succumbed to the KISS method and enjoying it more. Wrinkles in the grip tape doesn't bother me as much, string noise doesn't bother me as much, and even inaccuracy doesn't bother me as much. Life isn't as much about performance any more and I am thankful for that. But it's nice to get excited about a new riser.....lol

Doug

[Carpdaddy]

Fine looking bow!

[stumper]

Beautiful bow.

[Captainkirk]

I think that riser is spectacular, Doug! So glad to hear you are going to the 3D shoot, looking forward to a full report! I wouldn't be too concerned about another riser failure. Generally those are flukes that rarely happen and when they do it was something gone wrong in the original layup. I, too, would be reluctant to go back to a metal riser. I remember clearly the cold, crisp mornings in my stand holding on to a cold, frigid block of metal, and the wonder and warmth of wood after I switched to trad.

[Grizzly]

I really like your bow, the riser and the limbs. I like wood also and probably would have gone that way if I hadn't gone the way of an old Magnesium Hoyt TD-3 Riser that was "Warfed" (modified) to accept ilf limbs years ago. At the time, my wood recurves were aggravating a disc in my neck. It seemed that the metal risers with a bit more weight - or maybe just the nature of wood vs metal not acting so much as a tuning fork were not transferring that much vibration to my neck. They come with plastic grips; either high wrist, low wrist or medium. One day while rummaging around a junk box in an archery shop, I spied a wooded slip on grip that looked to me a perfect replacement for the plastic. Sure enough, it snapped right on, and I use it mostly now. Here is a photo of the old, strange, camo they originally came with back in the early 80's or whenever they were actually made. I bought another one of these, in a nice beige/tan color, originally set up as a recurve for JOAD, junior Olympic shooters, for my grandson.

Mine doesn't look much different than this old ugly thing. Except there are not shiny metal edges peeking through. I call it my "meat bow". Now I just have light limbs on it since I just can't handle my heavier ones anymore. They are very comfortable risers and make an excellent bow. Old Mr. Earl Hoyt knew what he was doing.

trimedriser1.jpg (19.41 KiB) Viewed 1500 times

Many of us may remember Pete Ward. This is what he did to one.
http://peteward.com/2008pages/Resurecti ... e.TD3.html

[dougedwards]

I had forgotten all about Pete Ward. He also wrote some informative articles on traditional muzzleloading.

Doug