I had an old 40” douglas fir fence post in the barn and tried to have some fun with it. I split it in half and chased a growth ring to make a shortbow that draws (estimated)15-20# at 20”. Then I split the other half again and joined the billets with a Z splice to make a longbow, using the inner split surface as the back side (for a quartersawn board bow.) I only ended up getting about 10 pounds at 28”. I really didn’t trust the Fir with much weight.
Neither bow was anything serious, mostly toys with rushed tillers. So I stacked them into a Penobscot bow. I really didn’t time this bow properly, or make use of ideal string angles. This was just a way to get more power into the longbow. The draw weight went up quite a bit, I’m guessing up to 25-30#. Drawing this reminds me of drawing a cable backed bow. I felt much more able to push the Fir hard in this design compared to either bow unbacked.
Here’s a little video of the making of the short bow
https://youtu.be/b2k58KXgMjUAnd making the longbow, plus shooting the double bow.
https://youtu.be/5Y7PHH7USAYLately I’ve been wanting to make a bow from one of the logs preserved in the beaver dam. Anyone here ever make a bow from waterlogged wood?
-Dan
