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Bows / Re: Overbuilt?
« Last post by Tuomo on February 23, 2026, 06:06:41 am »This is a really beautiful bow!
However, the title is something of a joke… I would call this bow underbuilt. It has a very long draw length relative to its overall length; its length-to-draw-length ratio is only 2.15. I personally prefer a ratio of 2.4–2.5 (although Baker recommended 2.3), because then I can be more confident that the bow will take less set and will not break in the long run. This bow also has quite a heavy draw weight, which means it is very highly stressed. I would not dare to make a bow like this myself (I’m not good enough yet!). But you clearly had a very good piece of wood and excellent skill.
A completely different, but very interesting, topic is how to determine what you can get out of a specific piece of wood. For example, with this bow – how did you decide that the stave was good enough to make such a highly stressed bow? Experience and skill, of course, but even then you can never truly know what the wood is capable of giving you.
However, the title is something of a joke… I would call this bow underbuilt. It has a very long draw length relative to its overall length; its length-to-draw-length ratio is only 2.15. I personally prefer a ratio of 2.4–2.5 (although Baker recommended 2.3), because then I can be more confident that the bow will take less set and will not break in the long run. This bow also has quite a heavy draw weight, which means it is very highly stressed. I would not dare to make a bow like this myself (I’m not good enough yet!). But you clearly had a very good piece of wood and excellent skill.
A completely different, but very interesting, topic is how to determine what you can get out of a specific piece of wood. For example, with this bow – how did you decide that the stave was good enough to make such a highly stressed bow? Experience and skill, of course, but even then you can never truly know what the wood is capable of giving you.