Yes I know, not what you call a regular design
Initially, four years ago it started as a 172 cm (68") pyramid bow with flipped tips, drawing 45#. Made from a red oak log that had bugs in the sapwood, so I reduced it to the first (lightly crowned) heartwood growth ring.
Due to an accident during transport, one tip broke off, so I piked it, narrowed the sides etc. I could draw it anyway to 30", so it was quite overbuilt though it had taken a good 6 cm / 2.5" of set.
It's a bendy handle due to a beginner's mistake of not keeping the handle deep enough during stave reduction (yielding a lot of handle set), but it didn't turn out that bad. As a matter of fact, the original bow was the first not entirely crappy bow I ever built.
this bow is 152 cm ntn (60"), and the handle set gave a good excuse to make it RD, with 10 cm / 4" tips set forward about 2.5 cm /1"
It currently draws 58# at 26".
Dimensions: 4.5 cm wide at the fades to 0.8 cm at the tips, 2 cm thick at the 2.5 cm wide handle. 1.4 cm thick along most of the limbs.
flipped the tips with steam (don't have good experience with dry heat bending on red oak). After that, I flax-backed the tips to make them a bit stiffer as they used to be a bendy lower limb. Without retillering it drew exactly 55#@26". After a few dozen shots, however, a splinter lifted on the back so two days ago I decided to back the bow entirely with a thin layer of flax (1 mm). Retillered it to 58# at 26" (from 60# at 22" right after backing). Currently it has 4 cm / 1.5" of net set, which is a remnant of the old bow. I can live with that.
I may reduce it further to 50#, not sure yet. I'll shoot it a bit first to see if I like it enough.
Joachim
