Short Bow

[gfugal]

Here's a bow I just finished. Not particularly proud of it, but I did learn a from it. It originally got 45 lbs at 27 inches, but I decided to only draw it to 25 inches since I heard some creaking. at 25 inches it is 33 lbs. It gave me a lot of problems from the beginning. The string alignment was wonky due to a twist in the handle and it had a natural reflex. Hopefully now I know how to tiller better due to it. Not knowing better at the time I designed it with a nonworking handle with an arrow shelf and made the limbs too thin. As you can see it developed about 2 inches of string follow. I couldn't have expected otherwise, the design places too much stress on the bow. Its only 43 inches long. When I got about 1/3 of the way into tillering it It raised a splinter on the back. I was sure it was done for but I decided to back it with paper, a cable, then eventually the cloth backing you see know. I was amazed on how it saved the bow and prevented it from breaking. Nonetheless, its force curve isn't the best and it stacks. I measured its velocity at 87 fps for a 30 g arrow at 25 inch draw.

[gfugal]

More pictures of it braced, at full draw and the tips. I'm not too proud of the tiller. As you can tell the bottom limb has a too sharp of a bend. but I didn't want to reduce the weight any more than I did. I took off way too much wood trying to figure out how to get the string aligned.

[upstatenybowyer]

Kudos man for sticking (no pun intended) with it and seeing it to completion. If it were me, I would have gone for a bendy handle with such a short bow.

[mspink]

Whether you are proud of it or not its a bow: )

[bjrogg]

They all tell us something if we listen to them. Sounds like that one told you a lot and you where listening. 
Bjrogg

[bubby]

I'm suprised it didn't blow up on you when it got to 27" unbacked. With a stiff handle you only have about 34" of working limb wich only gives about a 17" draw, nice save and lessons learned

[High-Desert]

Whether you are proud of it or not, it's a pretty impressive feat to accomplish a bow that short with a stiff handle and not have it come apart. Seems like you learned a lot, great job, look forward to seeing your next.

Eric

[Stick Bender]

Those short bows have taught me a lot lol there much less forgiving & harder to tiller if I was going that short I would have opted for sinew  nice save

[Josh B]

Maybe I missed it, but what kind of wood is that?  I've only seen hackberry and elm bend like that bottom limb without exploding.  If you have more of that, you should be set!  Josh

[gfugal]

Thanks guys for the remarks! I definately learned a lot so it was worth it, and I should have more pride in it. Its just that my first bow broke and my second was week. I was hoping this would be a strong fast one, but my desiign was off. I'm currently working on my next which will be a 64 inch red oak. Hopefully i should be able to pull it off considering all the practice i've had on these sub-50-inch short bows with stiff handles. 

Maybe I missed it, but what kind of wood is that?  I've only seen hackberry and elm bend like that bottom limb without exploding.  If you have more of that, you should be set!  Josh

I honestly have no idea what wood it is. I harvested the wood like five years ago when a lightnig strike braught the tree down at my brothers apartment complex. Its not an evergreen and is pretty flexable. I can manipulate the wood now that its thinner and straighten the string follow out although it won't stay. It was maybe 6 inches in diameter with little heart wood. It was very light in color with little contrast between heartwood and sapwood (its only dark in these pictures cause i heat treated the belly and stained it). It grew straight and tall with the nearest branch occuring far off the ground. I need to get better at IDing trees. How did you guys learn to tell? I will probably go back in the summer and check out the sister trees and try to figure it out. I only was only able to get three 50 inch staves from it. So i have two left after this bow. I was planing on splicing the two together at the handle for the next bow, that way i can have a longer bow.