Went for a little relaxing down at the family cottage where I got into bowmaking. Relaxing means spending days in the workshop.
I brought my basic tools, a drawknife and a cabinet scraper. These bows are essentially made with just those two tools.
The first one is a 42" long "kids" bow about 30# at the 20"+ I'm drawing. I found some mouldy red oak boards and ripped this piece out. I did back it with white cotton because there was more grain runoff than I can deal with. It's has a thinner handle that is obviously working and fades an inch wide. It took 2" of set and whips my lighter arrows with surprising authority.
The second one is also from some old mouldy red oak boards. I backed with a scrap piece of ash I had previously used as a 5# toy bow. I didn't glue in any reflex and there was some deflex in both laminations. Anyways, it's 48" long, 7/8" wide at the centre and draws a good 50# at 22" or so inches. I didn't bring my scale or bother to measure the drawlength so these numbers could be a little off. I made side nocks because I'm in love with them. With all the cards stacked up against me (humid wood, glued in deflex, width, too circular tiller), on top of my ineptitude, the bow took a clean 3˝" of set. This bow is pure fun for shooting from the chest. Not too accurate though.
The last bow is that wonky oak D bow I started when I get jealous of the Hickory one GMC showed a couple weeks back. It's a red oak sapling, 58" long, 1.5" wide and about 55# at 28". The string is off the handle by a good inch and a half I think. I toasted the belly without inducing reflex just to dry the wood a little more. It took 2" of set. Surprisingly, the 1.5" wide handle isn't that uncomfortable.
