Red Oak with Bloodwood Tips and Riser

[dmc]

Hi everyone,
I just finished my red oak board bow with bloodwood riser and tips with antler overlay.  A little nerve wracking for me, but I made it. I named it "Premiere" for the French word "first", since this bow was my first one ever from glue up to finish. Adb from this forum has helped me in the past make some maple board bows, but this was my first attempt alone..... just me and my tillering board. I think I've learnt more what not to do rather than what to do. There were many ahaa moments when I clued in to what others on this forum were talking about. I now know why you get to short string as soon as possible. Had a little hard time with the tillering on the top limb, but was too paranoid in coming in under weight. The tips are fairly stiff, and my fillings haven't rattled out of my teeth yet.  It's 50 lbs @28", 72" ttt, 10" bloodwood riser, and antler overlay, backed with linen. This has been a great learning experience for me, and can't wait for the next one. A friend gave me a hickory stave, but I didn't want to wreck it, so I thought I'd try a red oak first, since they are fairly cheap to make.  Thanks for looking, and inspiring me with all the other works of art on this forum.

[Pat B]

Very good first bow.    Having to learn the way you did will stick with you forever. It took me 10 years to get there. 
 A few suggestions if I may...round over all edges. The wood you remove will not effect the draw weight and by doing so you lesson the chance of your bow lifting a splinter. The one other thing is the nock angle at the tips. By making them steeper you will lesson the wear to your string.
  I think you can now tackle that hickory stave with confidence! 

[Cameroo]

Looks pretty nice to me Dave!

[johnston]

That thing is right purty. And an excellent effort for a first , congratulations.

Lane

[dmc]

Thanks Pat, Cam and Lane, I was wondering about the nock angle, when I saw the pic posted, but a lot of places I read and saw showed the angle at 45 degrees. I see what you mean though about the angle. I may still correct this. I wasn't too sure on how much a person had to round off  the belly edge on pyramid bows either. I thought of doing 1/4 inch facets, but thought it might be too much. Will round off more next time.
Thanks again,

[Pat B]

In the old days they suggested rounding edges to the diameter of a pea(about 1/4") I don't think you have to go that much but any rounding will help. Keep the belly flat.

[Muler44]

That is a nice-looking bow!  I really like the Bloodwood and antler combination, and Oak always finishes out nice.

[Rich H.]

I love the bloodwood.  The string color matches as well.  Hot looking bow!

[blackhawk]

Congrats on making a shooter all on your own..its a great feeling and sense of accomplishment

You could wrap some serving around the affected area of where the string is tight up against the bottom of where its rubbing at the nock instead of redoing your nocks.

One other piece of constructive criticism is your bottom limb looks good tiller wise,but its bending more than the top,and the top could use some more scrapes from the fade to right before midlimb where most of the bending is occuring,and then some scrapes out past mid limb towards the tips. I wood rather have a properly tillered 45 pound bow than a 50 pound bow. The longevity of the bow is in danger being bottom limb weak...how does the bow look at brace? Is the bottom limb further away from the string than the top?

[tattoo dave]

Sweet bow!!! Congrats on that #1, it turned out great!

Tattoo Dave

[lesken2011]

Nice bow, DMC! The bloodwood really turned out nice, too. 

[Pappy]

Beautiful first bow,love the overlays, what Pat and blackhawk said but still might fine work for a first,wished mine had looked like that.Congrats.
   Pappy

[dwardo]

Great looking bow and brill finish.
The upper limb may be a bit stiff but it can be hard to tell if you canted the bow a little.
I hate doing nocks my self but after enough of them you start to get the right angle.

As mentioned above rounding the corners not only helps with avoiding splinters but also remove unwanted none bending mass which adds a little speed.

All in all lovely stuff.

[H Rhodes]

Great job on your first.  Love the tips and riser. Really good looking bow.  On to the hickory....  if you can make a shooter out of red oak, take what you have learned and breathe easier.  Hickory is hard to break and very forgiving.  You are gonna like it.  I started out with red oak and then moved to hickory and pecan on bows #3 and #4 and found them to be much easier to succeed with.  You are hooked now....   

[PEARL DRUMS]

If you can build a red oak board bow you can build any stave bow with ease. Good job! Take the advice given and you will be on your way to building many o' durable bows.