Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Setarip on October 29, 2015, 03:34:54 pm
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Hello,
My name is Josh, and I am new here! I wanted to share my first all wood bow. I made it from a red oak board from Lowes, with bubinga for the riser and limb tips. Overall length is 71" ntn, 2" wide at the fades to 1/2" at the tips. The bow weighs in at 20 ounces. I made the string with 2mm dyneema lashing line, with a fixed bridle kite line splice. Each loop is served with 0.21mm dyneema. The line is 850 lb breaking strength.
The bow came out a little light, just above 34#@28" (40+#@ my draw length of 31"). I am not drawing this bow past 28" for safety reasons and because I really don't want to blow this one up. The finish is Danish oil, carnauba wax, and sanded all the way up to 1200 grit. The grip is 1.5mm black leather and artificial sinew stitching.
I do have a chronograph, but I have not had the opportunity to clock it yet. At around 24" draw with a 380 grain arrow it did push 133 fps. I did that test before I was comfortable drawing it to 28". It does actually fire decently fast for a bow with its poundage. The bow stores approximately 31 ft-lbs when plotting the FD curve.
Later on when I get a moment I'll post a better full draw picture. Thanks for looking!
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More pictures!
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Hello and welcome. You must have a background in wood working, looks like great craftsmanship.
Full draw shot please
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Full draw!
Thanks Wizard! I am a typical diyer. I took two wood working classes in high school 12 years ago as well. I am slowly building up my own workshop. I am looking forward to my next bow!
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Good looking first bow!
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Thats a really great job for a first bow. Even tiller, lovely and unusual work around the handle/fade area, and a really good looking handle wrap. If I had to make any other comment, I was wondering if you have your nocking point a little low on the string? Or maybe its a visual effect in your drawn picture? I havent made a bow for a while, but I would hope it would be as good as that one :)
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You new guys are making me feel inadequate. Great first bow.
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Very nice............looks like a fine quarter sawn board. And your handle is a nice touch.
DBar
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Nice work! ;D
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Nice job. I wouldn't be scared to draw that bow another inch. Now, if it breaks? Don't blame me, it was bound to happen anyway. There really is no reason you cant take another inch from it. Its long, wide, light, built right and decent grained.
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It's obvious this is not your first woodworking project. Very nicely done indeed for a first bow. Congrats. Nice to have you join the gang here. Looking forward to seeing your second bow.
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Welcome and great first bow! Board bows can be difficult to make look beautiful, but that obviously was not a problem for you. All around great work. I especially like your handle to limb transition. Nice photography too!
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Wow! Thanks for the compliments guys! It was a TON of fun to make. I'm thinking about a mollegabet for my second bow...maybe a hybrid recurve/mollegabet. Too many possibilities it seems! I'm also going to try doing it as a laminate, maybe maple backed (?)...
@Pearl, I did tiller her out to 30", but am quite chicken to draw it in fear of a detonation :P
I will admit I spent the last few weeks searching through the forums at a lot of the bows you all have made...I have not seen one horrible bow on this site! It really is a fun place to share ideas and inspiration!
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Nice work there Josh!!! ;)
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That is a ridiculously nice first bow, good job!
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Way to go, cant wait to see your next.
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Looks very nice, well done!
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Absolutely love the fades. Hope you don't mind if I ripoff ur design
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Nicely done. +1 on the fades
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Very unique original work on the fades, good clean transitions and good tiller,...Nice bow.
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@Pearl, I did tiller her out to 30", but am quite chicken to draw it in fear of a detonation
Josh, if you tillered that bow to 30", I'd be drawing and shooting it at 30" too. Put her to work.
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Thanks for the compliments gents! I may draw her a bit further today and see how she shoots. I am far from a great shot, but at 28" draw I can consistently hit my target at nearly 30 yards. I only have 400 spine arrows, uncut at 31", and 125 grain field points. Those darn plastic vanes do rough up your hand after a few dozen shots though!
@ccase39, if you want to try out those fades then go ahead :) I'm actually pretty flattered you guys like them so much. When I was making them I did not have any preset design going so as I sanded away (a drum sander was used to do it!), it all just came together.
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setarip +1 on the plastic vanes. They also kick the butt of the arrow up I found, and it they're working off a shelf instead of skin, it's worse. If you have a spare, take the bottom vane off and see if it doesn't become the best arrow you have of the bunch. Found that out by accident when a vane tore off. I'm waiting on the arrival of feathers to re-fletch what I have, and have been collecting materials for wooden shafts, too.
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Sweet first bow!
But get rid of thr plastic vanes,they dont work well on a primitive bow.
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Update!
I took the bow out and shot a few dozen arrows before the rain came in. With a 383 grain arrow (11.25 gpp) I clocked a max speed of 151.6 fps! It started out at roughly 140 fps, but I was making an effort on my release. I actually think a few more fps can be squeezed out with a better release.
When I used a 323 grain (9.5 gpp) arrow I hit a max of 159.1 fps. All in all I am quite please that this bow shoots well beyond its weight.
Hey PlanB, I did cut off a cane on each arrow and they indeed fly better and more comfortably!
Edit: I was still only drawing 28" during this run. I also was able to hit a new max of 158.8 fps with the 383 grain arrow!
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Beautiful bow Setarip. I really like the angles. Sorry to see the small cracks you found.
Question for some of the more experienced: The back of this bow is very flat (Good for disbursing the tension). But the corners are sharper than I thought was recommended. They are slightly rounded, but not much. Any thoughts on this? Opinions? How much should the corners be rounded? Thansk
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Thanks Sean!
They are rounded to about the radius of a pencil. I actually went through and repair the cracks and am currently testing it again. So far I have over 200 arrows through her after the repair and she's going strong!
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I, for one, am thoroughly sick and tired of guys coming in here and posting their first bows and having them look as good, or often better (as in this case) than what I have been able to crank out in 14 years of making bows. And it is only salt in the wounds when he can post numbers indicating performance matches the quality of finish work and tillering.
Excuse me, everyone, but I got a bushel of lemons to go suck after looking at this seriously awesome bow. >:(
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Welcome Josh,
great work on your first beauty!
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realy nice bow! Tony
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Very stylish/sculptural
Del :)
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Kudos to your job on your first bow Setarip,and welcome.You have been stung by the disease now.
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Heck I'd have no hesitation drawing that bow to 30" nice work😉
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Haha! You guys are too much! Thanks for the compliments gents. I have definitely been bitten by the bug. I am well into bow #2 right now and already have plans for the next bow. :P My next bow may be a couple weeks, depending on my work schedule and prepping my house for the winter. The next one is hard rock maple and blood wood... >:D
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Great job. I think you could have gotten more weight out of that bow, but you made some very smart design choices there, and executed well. It's beautiful. Tillering and coming in at weight are their own skills. ;D