Eastern Red Cedar Long Bow

[peacefullymadewarbows]

Eastern Red Cedar longbow/warbow. I know it's a warbow in terms of draw weight, tiller, and side nocks etc, but I'm posting it here since I feel it's a bit of a novelty/not historically accurate in terms of wood species and some artistic liberty with the nock. Feel free to move it if the moderators feel it's necessary.

Anywho. Not too much story with this one. Just wanted to make a big bruiser out of this nice and delightfully knotty cedar stave I had and see if it would hold up long enough for me to oil it. So far so good! Decided to take my first shot at carving a little artistic shape into the horn. Both nocks are yak horn. I really love how they turned out. The bottom practically glass clear and the top with good color streaks. As always I can't get over the color of this wood.

Stats: 120lbs @ 31", 82 inches ntn, round arc tiller, 41x36mm at the handle, 14mm at the horn insertion, holds about 1-1.25" string follow

8 coats tru oil, 16 strand fast flight, a good time.

[peacefullymadewarbows]

Shoot video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkbbKlz-6jI&feature=youtu.be

[rps3]

I have no idea what it takes to make a bow with those stats, and wood species, but it sure looks beautiful.

[Stoner]

120# WHOA.... You are more of a man than me. Also a real looker. John

[DC]

Beautiful bow! I'm looking at the forth picture. Is that a (I don't know what to call it) noose loop? Is it meant to keep the string on(keeper)? Doesn't it wear badly?

[Santanasaur]

What a bow! Beauty and the beast!

 Red cedar is really growing on me but I’ve only had the guts to go for 30#
What’s your opinion on violating back rings  with ERC? If it’s possible to chase a growth ring is that better or is there more benefit to having control over sapwood thickness at the expense of violating rings?

I know that violating the sapwood is often recommended but after a tension break that hit my face I’m a little less gun shy after chasing a ring. Think I’m wasting time with the ring chasing? I’m not very interested in backed bows or I’d go that route.

[peacefullymadewarbows]

Thank you very much all!

DC: Yeah so what I have found helps with side nocks tremendously is making the loop as small as possible around the diameter of the nock. So, on the bottom where I don't have to pull it off and on every time I string the thing I use a slip loop. What I do when making the string make one tiny flemish loop with maybe like 4 single thickness twists before making the double thickness twists. So you end up with this tiny loop that I then slip the bigger top loop through to create a auto tightening loop. It actually places less strain on the nock in my experience.

Santanasaur: I have violated back rings on one cedar self bow (I think I posted it here awhile back) that was 80" long and 109# @31". It held up for about 40-50 shots then bang. So, it can hold up but not for long based on that one bow. And I have found huge variation in quality of cedar from tree to tree (I have made bows from 3 separate sample trees so far). I think it never hurts to chase a single growth ring. It's almost always a better bet to follow one growth ring but I just personally like the look of violated rings more and also it is accurate to the Mary Rose yew bows so I wanted to try it with the distant cousin cedar as an experiment. I will definitely try violated rings again. But the one cedar bow I've made where I chased a single ring is still in one piece after 200 plus arrows (from the same tree as the aforementioned bang) and it is shorter at 77" long 100# @31". The one listed here is just the first ring under the bark so no reduction was done. I agree. I know backing cedar is the safe route but I want to experiment with how good of self bows they can make. Not very interested in backing them. I understand the risks I take with that  . There is not empirical evidence for this but something I have done on all my cedar bows that have lasted beyond the tiller tree is burnish their backs. I feel that it does help enough to make the bows tenable as self bows. Again my sample is 8 or 9 cedar heavy longbows from 3 different trees but only one of the none burnished bows made it beyond the tiller tree where all of the burnished ones have for at least 40 shots but some many more. Hope this helps. 

[Whiskeyjet]

WOW. And with that big knot and ERC....Wow.

[Limbit]

WOW

[bjrogg]

Purty and I bet she smells good to
Bjrogg

[liyeliye123123]

WOW!!!!!!. 120lb selfbow with ERC.  Im inspired, I wanna try to build a ERC selfbow. Do you know any good resources for good staves.
Very impressive. Very very impressive!!!

[Ryan C]

That’s a really nice bow, I’ll have to give one a try I’ve got a lot of ERC staves some with zero knots on the back. Cool to see they can hold up at that kind of draw weight unbacked.

[Hawkdancer]

Very nice bow!  ERC should make a very good bow for those of us who pull in the wimpy 45#-55# range,  I'm impressed, now to get back to my I.p. Osage!  Will have to find an ERC Stave!
Hawkdancer

[Ryan C]

Very nice bow!  ERC should make a very good bow for those of us who pull in the wimpy 45#-55# range,  I'm impressed, now to get back to my I.p. Osage!  Will have to find an ERC Stave!
Hawkdancer

I could trade one for a decent Osage stave if interested. You can pm or email me if you’d like.

[Allyn T]

Can you make a good flat bow with cedar or is long bow the best design?