Hello all, I've been making bows on and off since high school and now, a decade later, I find myself drawn back to the ancient art.
First of all, I use boards because I don't have access to any staves, and the only boards I can get are Red Oak from Lowes (unless I drive 25 miles to the nearest Home Depot to get Maple). I'm actually fine with that... for now.
Anyways, I've always wanted to make a 50# bow, all my previous ones have been in the 35-45# range, so after I found a few really straight grained boards I decided to just go for it.
Here's the good news: I successfully made a 50# red oak bow out of a 1x2". It is just over 70" long, with a 4.5" handle and 1.5" fades. Limbs are full 1.5" wide until 14" from tips, where they taper to .5" nocks. The bow only has about 1.5" of string follow and slightly less set. Definitely my best yet, since I have a 35# bow with the same amount of set. The bow shoots great, at least in my very limited experience. The oak even has a very pretty grain, half of it is red and half is white.
Here's what concerns me: I realize I rushed this bow out, and after reviewing its tiller, it definitely bends way too much near the handle. It's the perfect tiller for a pyramid bow, but not this flatbow.
Here's my dilemma: do I retiller the bow, even though it shoots fine and pulls 50# (an arbitrary attribute, but still important to my naive bowyer spirit). Will its current tiller shorten the bow's lifespan? Do you think I could retiller to get a better bend, and then shorten it an inch or two to keep the same weight?
Here are a few pictures:
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
-Matt
