Greetings,
I'm new here, and would like to share my accomplishment and get some feedback and suggestions. I finished my first bow after breaking two earlier attempts. It's a flat board bow, made of red oak. I built it using the build-along from poorfolkbows.com, which was very detailed and offered insight into my first two failures.
The first failed bow was layers of red oak, glued together, and recurved. It broke when I first started to tiller it. The second was a one-day bow made from a really long dowel. It broke before I ever got to the tillering step. I decided that it was the wood, and the lack of knowhow that was causing me to fail. Once I understood the process better, and learned how to pick the wood with care, I overcame those problems.
It probably took about 50 hours or so for everything. The bow is red oak with a strip of fiberglass tape on the back (for insurance, I didn't want to break another one). The bow is around 45# at 31", measuring 71" nock to nock. It has about 3 1/2 inches of set, which from what I've read, isn't too bad. The string is an endless loop, about 20 strands of nylon kite line, with mason line for the nock servings and more kite line for the arrow serving.
Here are a couple shots. Note that this is not the final string, I changed it since then.
My kitchen floor is really weird. The pattern on the roll of fake tile is about 9 inches wide.
I probably spent about three hours on the handle alone. It's just fun to look at. And hard to believe that I made it.
This was before the handle was cut and final sanding was done. I have about a 29" draw, but I decided to push it past my draw to see if it would hold. It made it to 31" without a problem. With my draw, it's somewhere between 35# and 40#.
I made an arrow for it just to test it. It worked well enough, and I even did fletching. I'll need to take a picture of it to share. It lasted about seven shots before it hit the target funny, went into the ground sideways and broke in half. I knew it would happen sooner or later, so I wasn't that disappointed. I glued it back together and I'll probably mount it somewhere.
I went to Bass Pro Shop and bought some alumnium arrows so I could properly test the bow. I know aluminium isn't exactly traditional, but the place didn't sell any wooden arrows. I thought that was weird. When I got home, I tested the bow, and found that it shot very well, it's nice and smooth. The target area needs improvement, though. One arrow went through the cardboard and skewered an old tin washbasin. I was shocked when I saw that it actually went partway through.
I plan to stain the wood dark and then seal it so it's nice and shiny. For the ugly fiberglass back, I'm going to paint and clearcoat it.
So I'd love to hear what people think, and share some plans. I hope to start my next bow this week. I plan on making a few for my family so we can shoot together. For my son, who turns five in March, I plan to make a very light short bow that I'll custom make some short blunt arrows for him to get the hang of it. My daughter I plan to make a scaled down version of my bow. For my wife, I picked out a really nice piece of white maple. I'm not sure how good it will be as a bow wood. It feels strong and bends well, but I didn't know if it is an appropriate wood. The grain is perfect, and the board couldn't be straighter.
I also have a question about the string - is the nock on the arrow supposed to 'grip' the string slightly? With the serving I made, the nock holds the string just enough that it takes a tiny effort to pull it off. I wasn't sure if there was supposed to be no resistance or if some was okay.
I can't wait to learn more, and look forward to hearing everyone else's experiences.
Thanks!
Jamie
