58" Red Oak 20#@29"

[ajbruggink]

Heh guys,

I finished tillering this bow about 2 months ago and I decided to post it to see what you guys think. The stave was originally a 15/16" wide and 72" long and backed with rawhide. I knew that 15/16" is narrow for red oak and it only became that narrow because of a mistake I made while roughing the bow out but I decided to build the bow and see what kind of draw weight I could get out of it. My goal was to get a 30 lb bow out of it. I ended up shortening the bow from 72" tip to tip to 58" tip to tip to finally get it to a weight that would register on my weight scale, which was 20 lbs, so either its my tillering skills to blame for such a low weight or red oak needs to even wider than I thought. The fact that I tillered it to my draw length probably did not help conserve the draw weight. I have shot 100 arrows out of it so far and it has had no problems yet but I do not think the tiller is perfect. I have not put a finish on it because I was waiting for a response from a family friend who was looking for a wallhanger bow but seeing as how I didn't get a response, he probably doesn't want it so I was thinking of using it as a test subject for trying to use rendered bear fat as a finish on a rawhide backed bow. When I posted the question of whether animal fat could be used as a finish on rawhide or sinewed backed bows on this website, the opinions were about 50-50 on whether or not it would work, so I'm going to look into it myself. Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,

Aaron

[Mo_coon-catcher]

The tiller looks good to me. I would be happy with it. Especially if it shoots smooyh with no shock.
I've never tried a grease/wax finish on a backing of any sort. As long as there's enougj wax to leave a tough enough coat on the rawhide, I don't see why it wouldn't work. It'll probably just take frequent reapplications.

Kyle

[Pat B]

That's very nice bend. I'm surprised a 58" red oak board bow would bend that far but you don't know til you try it. Well done!   

[Knoll]

Ya likely got all the draw length practicable from that one. Congrats!

[ajbruggink]

That's very nice bend. I'm surprised a 58" red oak board bow would bend that far but you don't know til you try it. Well done!   

Thanks, Pat, this is the shortest successful I've made so far, I did make a 56" ttt mahogany bow three years ago but I only drew it to 26" and that thing started chrsyaling because of a hinge so I broke it on purpose. This bow would be really awesome if it just had a higher draw weight.

[ajbruggink]

I forgot to mention that this a D-bow, the center 2 1/2 feet is the full width of 15/16" and then it tapers to 1/2" nocks. I figured most of you would assume that but I thought I would mention it just in case, considering I forgot to take a picture of the limb profile.

[bjrogg]

Maybe you could back it with sinew. It might be a good experiment for you and get you more weight.
Bjrogg

[Pat B]

...or add a hickory or maple backing.