This is my second bow from white oak. The tree was cut last winter. The stave was originally cut down to 64” long by 1.5” wide and then heat treated on a caul into about 3.5” of reflex. I had done a lot of careful floor tillering before stringing and went too far because my weight was on target at 45 pounds at 26 inches immediately. I did a more intense heat treating a couple days later putting it back to 3.5 inches of reflex and still had to pike the limbs down to total bow length of 62 inches, which brought the bow to just under 50 pounds at 26 inches. Final width of 1.5 inches at widest point (handle). It’s a D bow with working handle. It’s now holding about 1.25 inches of reflex after resting overnight.
It’s shooting pretty decent. The string lays off to arrow pass side. With a brace height of 6.5 inches I’m getting perfectly quiet shots and my windage is perfectly correct with a string blur of string just to right of arrow. Jumps right back into reflex after shooting. I left the top limb bending slightly more, I heard this is good when shooting three under which is how I shoot. Not sure if that was true but it’s all a big experiment so we’ll see. I burned in my Keystone arrowpass to mark the bow as a true Pennsylvanian and put on a deerskin handle wrap. The finish is a mix of lard and beeswax which is melted together.
The weight will probably drop to 45 pounds especially on a hot humid day. I learned all about that this summer with my other bows. The dampness and heat can really do a number on the draw weight. That’s partly why such a deep burnt black heat treat on this bow. This is my second white oak, the first is a short 57 inch pulling 45 pounds and holding little over an inch of reflex. May be my last bows of white oak since I recently came into possession of a large stash of beautifully seasoned and preserved, bug free, straight black locust.
