2012 Red Oak Board Bow Trade

[lostarrow]

Iconicmuffin- I'm waiting with baited breath! Looks like you chose a high stressed design for that poor little piece of red oak. How much working limb and draw length are we looking for?

[autologus]

Lostarrow, that Greenman is awesome.  You are a very talented artist, I love the bow.

Grady

[ionicmuffin]

36 inches of working limb and 24 of static. i heat treated the limbs and they are 2 inches wide.

[lostarrow]

Good luck Iconic muffin. Can't wait to see it finished . This is Red Oak #4  for this trade for me. It will be nice to work with something else for a while. 1 broke and two were less than impressive. Have you tried this design with red oak?

[ionicmuffin]

well, to be honest its not red oak, its white, thats all i have atm. If this fails then i will have to buy some red oak. I have tried this design with a kids bow, 1.5 inches wide and 56 inches long. It wasnt heat treated and took maybe half inch of set

[bubby]

i'm glad you said it's white oak, with all that reflex red oak would be doomed to fail, WO is outstanding in tension and a much better choice, don't ever apologize for using WO, its a great bow wood,  Bub

[ionicmuffin]

yep, but ive noticed it takes a ton of set initially. But its near impossible to break.

[lostarrow]

CHEATER!!!!!!!!. Just joking. I've nearly run out of red oak for bows myself and was thinking I might have to use some white or hickory just to give my guy a bow. I specifically recall seeing that a substitute was acceptable if no Red Oak was available locally,but I was on a mission

[ionicmuffin]

since i have the white oak and im short on cash i would rather not have to go spend more on one. but if i run out i will go get more lol.

[Onebowonder]

I messed up a key piece last night, ...but I'm not exactly starting over since I'm running 3 of them concurrently.  I actually think I may be able to shorten the limbs and still get a bow out of the one bit that was ruined last night.  I am finding, (which I guess I already knew), that the difference between starting to bend nicely and a limp hinge is VERY VERY VERY little wood.

OneBow

[hedgeapple]

I just glued the risers on 2 red oak victims.  I'll thin the limbs down this evening.  We'll see.

[ionicmuffin]

Heres where im at. It is pulling around 45 at target draw, maybe less. What do you guys think? I think that the left side is hinging near the handle and isnt bending as much mid limb

[bubby]

i'd work the outer on the left and mid out on the right

[ionicmuffin]

ok, sounds good to me. If it comes in under weight i was wondering if i could just re heat treat the bow and add around 3 inches maybe four of reflex? what do you think?

[lostarrow]

You could try ,but it might blow . Try putting a piece of cardboard or something behind your bow when tillering,so you don't get any optical illusions from the back ground. If there is any question to the bend,I flip it end for end and see if it tells the same story.Usually it doesn't. Try it, it'll surprise you. I've even drawn it a few inches on the stick and traced the outline on a blank piece of cardboard ,then  flipped it over to compare limbs. Shipping mine out this week.