I finished two bows on Saturday. One I had been working on for over a week (was slowed down by the flu) and the second I started Saturday evening and finished within a few hours.
The first is a wide flatbow. 66" long, 4 1/2" stiff handle with 1 3/4" fades. 2 1/4" wide with slight taper to 2 1/8" at mid limb, then straight taper to 1/2" nocks. In order to follow the grain of the board, the limbs are not straight. One has a slight "s" bend near the tip and the other has a shallow bend throughout its length. This makes the bow near center shot.
So far I've only pulled it to 27" on the tiller tree where it was over 65#. I'm guessing at 28" it will be at or near 70#. By far the heaviest bow I've attempted. This is sort of an experiment to find out what draw weight I like best since I mostly only have bows in the 40# range.
Set is right around 1 1/2".
The second bow is also from a red oak board. I went in an entirely different direction with this and made it long, narrow and a bendy handle. It's 72" long, has a 4" handle that's 1 1/4" wide with 3" fades that widen to 1 1/2". Immediately tapers the rest of limb to 1/2" nocks. Mid limb width is just 1". I tillered this bow without a set draw length in mind, I was going to use the set to determine the final weight. I ended up with 55# @ 28" but could have gone heavier since it only has 3/4" string follow immediately following shooting, and settles to just 1/2" set. By far my best yet. I stopped at 55# because I've learned that that is the upper limit of comfort for me.
Here are the two side by side where you can see their limb profiles. The flatbow is unfinished bare wood. The slender bow has a two tone finish, a darker danish oil belly and nothing but clear shellac over the back to give it a sapwood/heartwood illusion.
Here are a few full and partial draw photos. Please excuse the bad form, I'm working on it!
Thanks for looking!
edit: fixed links
