looks like pretty decentl bows to me!
concerning that red oak...it looks like to me it's bending a tad too much in the center, but then it's probably just me.
I also am sort of doubtful that it's 80 pounds. I have made tons of these sorts of red-oak board ELB things, and I have never had one come in at 80 pounds. The heaviest I got was 50 pounds--and on this bow is full thickness of the original board in the handle (3/4")
it's 72" nock to nock, though, but I don't think piking it down to 67" would raise the weight all the way to 80.
It's sort of hard to see, but it looks like to me that you could really reduce some mass down on the tips...just my two cents. I remember my first few bows had real thick tips and pretty mediocre cast, but they seemed pretty wonderful to me at the time.
I hope that thick string is only your tillering string
here's my 50-pounder
Nope, thats the real string. It is the thinnest string I have that can take the strain. I can actually tie it to a branch and hold on to it, putting all 130 pounds of me on it... and even swing from it.
I hand-twisted it from jute fiber painstakingly pulled and washed out of jute cord. I only took the fibers longer than 8".
It took about 150 feet of jute cord to get the fiber. less than half of the fibers are long enough.
As I said, @ 28 inches, it is probably close to #80. I don't have a scale that can measure it- fancy electronic bathroom scale stinks and the kitchen has a max of 2 pounds
This is 67"... 5 inches makes a difference. But I know its quite high, at least 70# cause I can only draw it to 22" and I can full draw a #65 bow 28"(my uncle has a #65 recurve, and I have shot a #60 longbow once)
Once I can measure it(I might hang weights from the bowstring) I will report the actual weight.