"Second Chance" salvaged Red Oak short bow.

[Matt S.]

This bow started out as a simple 64" ttt flatbow but due to my haste and a disastrous attempt to recurve the tips, I ended up piking it down to just about 57.75" ttt and 55.25" ntn. It also went from being a flatbow to a D-bow with very slightly recurved tips and tip overlays. Since the last 2 bows I had on my tillering tree ended in broken wood, I was very conservative with this one. My heart was pounding like crazy when it was getting close to being done! I guess a batch of bad bow luck really frazzles the nerves!
Here are its specs:
57.75" ttt, 55.25" ntn
1 1/8" wide in handle, fade out to 1.5" wide. Full width to last 10" then taper to 5/8" at nock.
40#@25"
Set: about 1.25"
Wood: Red Oak (1x2x6 board)
Finish: 2-3 coats of Danish Oil (medium walnut), followed by two coats of shellac (sandwiching my ink signature) and one coat of wiping varnish. I also used the danish oil on the string to darken it up as well. Handle is leather thong with a contrasting leather insert weaved into the back.

And here are the photos:
Bow braced:


Tip detail: The obvious glue lines are the result of the overlays being added after the bow had been tillered while it was still a flatbow.


Belly side of handle, I need to clean some of the glue off it:


Back side of handle. Color isn't great, but the leather weave is a brick red color which contrasts nicely with the dark brown leather.


Here I am getting ready to pose for my wife.... wait, did I just say that?


(Almost) full draw. The timing was apparently off a little!


Phone books and cardboard targets beware!


Hope you enjoyed the photos. I normally don't make bows this short, so this was a learning experience in many different ways. Oh, and it does shoot well, it's actually really fun to shoot!

[Little John]

Hey that turned out pretty nice, like the nocks a lot. Nice save and cool first shooter.       Kenneth

[NTProf]

Always nice to see red oak board bows. That one came out great!

[George Tsoukalas]

That came out great! Tell us about the recurves. Jawge

[Matt S.]

That came out great! Tell us about the recurves. Jawge

The first time I was trying to recurve the bow I was using a heat gun. I think I must have rushed it when the tip broke.

After I cut the limbs down and tried recurving the tips again I had to use steam because my junk heat gun died on me (after only using it once!). As a side note, stay FAR AWAY from the $10 Harbor Freight heat gun!!

The recurves are very mild but definitely help a little with the string angle. They look a lot more pronounced than they really are due to the tip overlays.

I was very conservative all round with this bow during its second chance at life.

[Matt S.]

Since this is my first "short" bow (besides a couple of kids bows), I have a couple of questions for those of you who have lots of experience making <60" bows.
Do you think I could have gotten this bow to a full 28" draw? Perhaps the handle area is a tad stiff preventing a longer draw?
Do you think Red Oak can take the strain of a full draw when it is this short, assuming a 40-50# draw and 1.5" wide limbs?
How does the tiller look on this bow?

This bow became a short bow on accident, but I like the way it turned out so much I plan on making some more shorties in the future.

[aero86]

i will say, i made a 55 inch bow, with siyahs glued on.  they were about 3 inches long at a 45 degree angle.  it ended up pulling to about 27.5 inches.  which is my draw length.  it was all red oak, static handle

[Josh]

Cool bow for the February BOM contest!  When I buy the Harbor Freight Heat guns I buy them two at a time in case the first one goes out on me in the middle of a project LOL 

[Matt S.]

Cool bow for the February BOM contest!  When I buy the Harbor Freight Heat guns I buy them two at a time in case the first one goes out on me in the middle of a project LOL 

Isn't that the truth! Now I have to weigh the option of buying a half-way decent heat gun or see if I can get by with steaming for all my bends. Hmmm....

[profsaffel]

Wow, it appears to be 'Red Oak' month! Another fine display of craftmanship from a board. Excellent.