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Author Topic: Two new Red Oak board bows.  (Read 7118 times)

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Offline Matt S.

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Two new Red Oak board bows.
« on: January 24, 2011, 07:30:21 pm »
I finished two bows on Saturday. One I had been working on for over a week (was slowed down by the flu) and the second I started Saturday evening and finished within a few hours.
The first is a wide flatbow. 66" long, 4 1/2" stiff handle with 1 3/4" fades. 2 1/4" wide with slight taper to 2 1/8" at mid limb, then straight taper to 1/2" nocks. In order to follow the grain of the board, the limbs are not straight. One has a slight "s" bend near the tip and the other has a shallow bend throughout its length. This makes the bow near center shot.
So far I've only pulled it to 27" on the tiller tree where it was over 65#. I'm guessing at 28" it will be at or near 70#. By far the heaviest bow I've attempted. This is sort of an experiment to find out what draw weight I like best since I mostly only have bows in the 40# range.
Set is right around 1 1/2".

The second bow is also from a red oak board. I went in an entirely different direction with this and made it long, narrow and a bendy handle. It's 72" long, has a 4" handle that's 1 1/4" wide with 3" fades that widen to 1 1/2". Immediately tapers the rest of limb to 1/2" nocks. Mid limb width is just 1". I tillered this bow without a set draw length in mind, I was going to use the set to determine the final weight. I ended up with 55# @ 28" but could have gone heavier since it only has 3/4" string follow immediately following shooting, and settles to just 1/2" set. By far my best yet. I stopped at 55# because I've learned that that is the upper limit of comfort for me.


Here are the two side by side where you can see their limb profiles. The flatbow is unfinished bare wood. The slender bow has a two tone finish, a darker danish oil belly and nothing but clear shellac over the back to give it a sapwood/heartwood illusion.

Here are a few full and partial draw photos. Please excuse the bad form, I'm working on it!




Thanks for looking!
edit: fixed links
« Last Edit: January 24, 2011, 07:33:24 pm by Matt S. »
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Offline JW_Halverson

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #1 on: January 24, 2011, 09:22:00 pm »
Not too shabby!  No apologies for following the grain of the wood around here, most of us kinda like the kinky stuff!  Nice to see you aren't limiting yourself to just one style of bows, too.  Keep it up!
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Guns have triggers. Bicycles have wheels. Trees and bows have wooden limbs.

Offline Rick Wallace

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #2 on: January 24, 2011, 09:26:40 pm »
By George,I think you got it!!            looks great!!!!!!!
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Offline tattoo dave

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #3 on: January 24, 2011, 09:59:17 pm »
Nice work Matt!!! I'm a big fan of board bows, I guess I just like to keep things simple.
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Rockford, MI

Offline George Tsoukalas

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #4 on: January 24, 2011, 10:10:18 pm »
Very nice work. Jawge
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Offline NTProf

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #5 on: January 24, 2011, 10:18:05 pm »
Nice bows. I am a fan of board bows too. I like the red oak!
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Offline NTD

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #6 on: January 24, 2011, 10:21:47 pm »
Definitely nice work!  Cool to see you followed the grain, don't see that much with boards.
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Nate Danforth

Offline Matt S.

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #7 on: January 24, 2011, 10:35:30 pm »
Thanks for all the nice words everybody.

I like board bows out of necessity, but even if I had access to staves I think I'll always have a soft spot in my bowyer's heart for boards.

My bow lumber shelf in the workshop is now completely full. Mostly red oak, a few hickories and a maple or two. I need to stop buying boards every time I go to the hardware store and use up my supply ;D

Quote from: NTProf on January 24, 2011, 10:18:05 pm
Nice bows. I am a fan of board bows too. I like the red oak!
I'm loving red oak more and more. Not long ago I would never had imagined I would be able to make an unbacked red oak bow only 1" wide at mid limb pulling 55# and only taking 1/2" set.
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Offline Denham Archer

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2011, 12:07:47 am »
I likie red oak board bows also.  It's just what I use the most, out of necessity also.  I like it as just much as maple, or hickory, or white oak boards.  Although white oak is harder, I still prefer red oak.   
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Offline ken75

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2011, 12:32:07 am »
great bows !! keep up the good work
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Offline Pappy

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2011, 06:29:08 am »
Nice work,you been busy. :)
  Pappy
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Offline Josh

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #11 on: January 28, 2011, 12:33:49 pm »
Got them both bookmarked for January BOM contest too!  Nice work!!!   :)
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Offline Hrothgar

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #12 on: January 28, 2011, 03:03:26 pm »
Matt, great job on both bows. I especially like the way the elb looks at full draw.
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Offline DEllis

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #13 on: January 28, 2011, 04:40:28 pm »
Nice work on those. One question. Did you chase a ring on the back or just use the board surface for the back? Hard to tell from the pics.
Darcy :)
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Darcy Ellis
Fort Fraser BC Canada eh!

Offline Matt S.

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Re: Two new Red Oak board bows.
« Reply #14 on: January 28, 2011, 04:48:44 pm »
Quote from: DEllis on January 28, 2011, 04:40:28 pm
Nice work on those. One question. Did you chase a ring on the back or just use the board surface for the back? Hard to tell from the pics.
Darcy :)

Sorry about the low quality photos. There are just a few precious minutes of light left in the day by the time I get home and I'm not very happy with the way interior picts come out. That being said, both these bows follow the surface of the board as the back. The longbow came from a 1x2x6 with near perfect grain (couple of low angle run outs max). The flatbow came from a 1x4x6 board that I tried to get 2 bows out of but the grain was a little too wavy, so instead I followed the grain and got 1 bow out of the board.
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