I had been looking at the West Coast bows in the Traditional Bowyer's Bible Vol 1, and wanted to try my hand at one. In my browsing and planning, I saw a bow that was about 54" long; this being about the normal length of my bows, I decided to go ahead and replicate that one.
It was Oak, so I got a 1" by 3" Red Oak board and copied the front view as well as I could. This is what I ended up with.
It has a 1-1/2" handle, swelling to 2-1/2" at the widest point. The tips are a little narrower than the original's, at about 3/4", and it was 56" before the recurves, 54-1/2" afterwards (the original was 54-1/4" long). The tips are the same style as the one in the book, as well as the recurves. The original had no handle wrapping, but I liked the look of a combination leather/cordage handle (also shown in TBB 1), so I added that as well as a stain to darken the wood, and finished it with Tung oil.
It pulls 60lb@25" and shoots a 700 grain arrow very fast, hard, and accurately.
Sean
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