Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Eagle Boyer on May 01, 2012, 03:05:19 am
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Ok, I have been breaking bows for a while now and have recently finished two red oak board bows that pull 45# and 55# at 28''. My goal is to train myself up to warbow draw weights, and I would like to do this by progressively using heavier bows. So my main question is, how heavy can you make a red oak board bow (since that is whats available to me), and what would be the best backing? Also I haven't seen a exact answer to this, with a red oak board bow do you want thick or thin growth rings?
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I think a safe maximal drawweight for a red oak selfbow is about 65# in practice. You could make a wide and long flatbow of 75# maybe, but the wood must be flawless then. A working backing of a tension strong wood (hickory, white oak, even bamboo) may gain you another 10 pounds in weight. Rawhide may also work to some extend, but it's not as good as a wooden backing.
If you're looking for a higher drawweight, you should be looking for other wood species, preferably as staves.
With ring porous woods, such as red oak, you don't necessarily want either thick or thin growth rings. Instead, you want a lot of latewood, and very little earlywood. The earlywood is the porous, crumbly wood between the darker coloured solid wood.
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The straighter the grain the heavier the bow can be, Eagle Bowyer. Design the bow around the weight you want too. Make it long enough an wide enough. YOu won't be abpe to make it as narrow as you would when using yew. Jawge