Greetings again,
The red oak linen backed short bow that I made for my son is complete! My son is 4 years old and was very interested to see what I was making, and was very happy when he learned that daddy made a bow for him, too. This would be my second bow (that didn't break). I'm starting my third tonight, but that's another topic.
The bow is 5 lbs at 18", which is his draw right now. I made short dowel-arrows with foam tips for him to practice (supervised of course). It shoots very nice and straight, but I need to make a real string for it. The one in the image was just for tillering, and it's too long. I have fired 'real' arrows from it, and it's fun to watch. If you aim high, they follow a nice long ballistic arc, and then barely stick into the ground, because the arrows are so heavy compared to the bow.
The wood is from Home Depot, so it's really a board-bow, made with red oak trim, which was the smallest wood I could find there with good grain. I finished it with a couple layers of boiled linseed oil, and wrapped the handle with some scrap green leather and cotton string I had laying around. All in all, I'm very happy with how it turned out.
Here are some pics, let me know what you think. Thanks for all your help getting this one done!
Note the odd bend - you can actually change its appearance by bending one side and holding it, then letting go. It's very thin. Please excuse my huge duck feet, I didn't crop these.
This is at 12" of draw. When the level is placed at the point where you actually hold the nock, it bends perfectly.
The handle wrap was quick and dirty, so I messed up my over/under pattern. It's not a big deal, since I'm going to replace it with some nicer leather later.
As you can see, it got VERY thin at the ends, but still seems to be okay.
Thanks again for everything, I'll have some info about my next bow shortly. This is yet another board bow, but I finally found a hardwood dealer and got a line on some proper bow wood. He said he can get me some Osage-orange. Very exciting.