Rawhide Backed Maple: 84" Design Experiment (all pics up)

[Almostpighunter]

I had been doing a lot of thinking on longer versus shorter bows recently and, as most of the bows I make fall into the 54"-64" category, I decided to get extreme and make a oversized bow and see what the potential benefits of the longer design might be. Inspired partially by the Lord of the Rings and partially by the Japanese Yumi bows I managed to create one of the most fun, if not completely impractical bows, I have ever had the pleasure to shoot. Draws smooth as butter and throws arrows with accuracy and consistency. I do keep bumping the bow into things (and people) so I will likely make any future bows like this one in takedown form.

Easily drawing past 34", but the measured draw weight was 40#@28"
84" tip to tip
Static reflexed "syahs" made of hickory with the Main bow made from Maple and stained with Fiebing's leather dye USMC Black
Riser is Purpleheart and Bubinga
Backing is rawhide covered with Jungle Carpet Python (Yo, NTD!)

Hope you enjoy.

[Almostpighunter]

More pics

[Almostpighunter]

Couple More

[PAHunter]

Looks pretty sweet Mike!  So what conclusions did u draw?

[lebhuntfish]

That's a nice one Mike! Well done! It would be cool to make two or three more of those alike that are shorter, and shorter down to your  down to your 54" length being the shortest. Just to see what they each shot like and the speed and so on.  Your tiller looks spot on to me, but what do I know I broke two it the matter of min. Patrick

P.S. that's one big snake!

[dbb]

Yup,thats a LONGbow!
That it is smooth  i dont doubt as there is virtually no stress on it.
I think i would have made it a bit shorter myself to get a bit more "oumpf"...but thats me
Nice skins btw

[Almostpighunter]

Thanks guys,
The conclusions are still pending as I am going to do exactly as lehuntfish noted, but I will say the current low stress on the limbs makes for an extremely comfortable shot. I actually find it very "zen" and feel very meditative where I can really enjoy the simple process of letting the arrow fly as opposed to worrying about where it hits the target. Gives me an insight into the spirit of Kyudo

[adb]

I think a big bow like that would really excel with a long draw length and heavy draw weight. I also think it's performance would depend highly on it's mass. That you've used maple is excellent... I believe a bow like yours would be a total dog with a heavier wood like osage or ipe. The limb mass would be way too much, and I suspect the hand shock would be horrible. Nice bow, by the way!

Looks like you're getting set to do some leather work, as well. You've got a big tooling side of leather there all ready to make into something!

[lebhuntfish]

Glad to see that you are going to build a few more like it! I will be interested to see the progression of those in comparison to this one. Patrick

[PatM]

I think a big bow like that would really excel with a long draw length and heavy draw weight. I also think it's performance would depend highly on it's mass. That you've used maple is excellent... I believe a bow like yours would be a total dog with a heavier wood like osage or ipe. The limb mass would be way too much, and I suspect the hand shock would be horrible. Nice bow, by the way!

Looks like you're getting set to do some leather work, as well. You've got a big tooling side of leather there all ready to make into something!

Blackhawk kind of disproved that heavier wood theory. His design and this one have the advantage of a longer riser and the potential for lighter extremities which shortens the working limb and diminishes the mass.
 Get 16-20 inches in the center not working and put light siyahs on it and it's not going to have much more working mass than a 64 inch bow with a short handle and fades.

[adb]

I would agree with that, as long as the siyahs are not osage.

[toomanyknots]

I think a big bow like that would really excel with a long draw length and heavy draw weight. I also think it's performance would depend highly on it's mass. That you've used maple is excellent... I believe a bow like yours would be a total dog with a heavier wood like osage or ipe. The limb mass would be way too much, and I suspect the hand shock would be horrible. Nice bow, by the way!

Looks like you're getting set to do some leather work, as well. You've got a big tooling side of leather there all ready to make into something!

Blackhawk kind of disproved that heavier wood theory. His design and this one have the advantage of a longer riser and the potential for lighter extremities which shortens the working limb and diminishes the mass.
 Get 16-20 inches in the center not working and put light siyahs on it and it's not going to have much more working mass than a 64 inch bow with a short handle and fades.

I don't remember any chrono results or any actual testing other than saying "it shoots good", please forgive me (and maybe shoot me a link?) if I am wrong. Something like the mojam test would of been preferable I would think, with different bows of varied lengths and such...

[Almostpighunter]

@Toomanyknots: I agree and will put all the bows through their paces, including chrono, to see "what is what." There will obviously be a subjective aspect to my little experiment which will be how the bow "feels" and how "I" think it shoots, but I really want to get some objective input, such as fps, in the calculations as well.

The only thing I will apologize for in advance is how long it takes me to get all of the bows done

@adb: Yessir, you nailed it. The leather is for a few quivers I need to make for some folks.

[Hrothgar]

While there are certain advantages to over building a bow, I believe it was Paul Comstock in his book The Bent Stick who noted the increase in distance when a bow is tillered and drawn to its maximum point-i.e. a #50 bow drawn full draw at 27" versus a #60 bow designed to draw 29", but only shot at 28".
Would be interested in hearing the results of your tests.
Nice bow, I bet it is a smooth shooter!

[blackhawk]

Awe geez....how did I get dragged into this conversation without even being present...lol 

BTW ....I shoot a lot,and on average 4/5 days easy a week,and half the time I'll grab that long osage to shoot...its one of my top 5 shooters right now...and this coming from a avid shooter who's anal about a well mannered bow should tell ya all ya need to know..and guess what,my most accurate bow I'm with is that long ash bow I made(same 76" length as the osage) ...love my longbows(when it comes to target shooting),but I think ya'll know that

Nuttin wrong with that bow there as long as there executed correctly there just fine IMO