I built this bow for my wife from another red oak board from Home Depot. I was really excited about this one, and decided to go for my first recurve. I might have rushed the tillering process a bit because the working limb has taken quite a bit of set, but it made it into a bit of a deflex/reflex, which hasn't done anything bad for the bow. It draws quite smoothly and whips the same weight arrow faster than my other red oak longbow. The tip overlays are bone that were salvaged from a broken maple board bow made shortly before this one. I think it's a bit short for red oak lumber, hence the set, but I like it anyway.
I backed this one with silk because I knew I was pushing it with the design. It has held up nicely. The finish is... interesting? I tried painting the back with water-based leather dye and hide glue and it didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. It did give it a bit of a rustic look, which my wife appreciated, so as long as she's happy, I'll just be happy to learn from it.
The silk wraps at the curves possibly were the worst idea I've ever had. They took hours of wrapping with a fly tying bobbin. Color choice wasn't great as the gold went a bit translucent once I put the superglue on. I will never do wraps this long again.
It's about 64 inches nock to nock, pulls 36# @ 27 inches and is quite fast for it's weight (to me anyway). Overall, we dig it. Thanks for looking! Oh, and it's asymmetric, and I can't remember if that was intentional or not. LOL.
