Oak American Longbow

Here is some pictures of the Oak Amercan Longbow I just finished. The upper two pictures are the finished bow, the bottom one is me trying it out in the tillering process  - The bow is canted slightly and I am not in full draw perhaps a little nervous about the whole thing exploding on me at any second! It seems that the bow has ended up in the 50 # range at 29" (my draw length). It is made from a standard 1 x 2 milled Oak board from Home Depot. Handle and tips are Walnut. I did a cut in shelf on this bow hoping for more acuracy. My first bow was made from Maple and had a wrapped handle with no arrow shelf.

Been making a Bow....

Since I got into archery (target shooting -no hunting) I got curious about building a bow. So I bought a piece of maple at the lumberyard and shaped it to plans I saw on the internet. Here it is on the tillering stick ( a stick with groves ever so many inches) where you check the 'tiller' ( the bend) or the arms. They should be equal on both sides, which can be a real process of scraping, and sanding just a little here and there and checking constantly. The handle and tip overlays are made of walnut.

Here is the finished bow handle wrapped with leather. I  painted a few simple lines around it for decoration. I chose to make it with no arrow shelf cut into it - I cut a piece of brown leather and glued it  just above the handle.

There are flaws in it as it was my first bow. The biggest one is I goofed on the measurements and tapered the belly of it down to 1/4 in" at the tips instead of 3/8". That cost me in poundage. The bow was supposed to be in the 45 lb. range but ended up at 35 lb at 28 in.  Oh well, It will be a good bow to have around if my dear wife ever decides to try her hand at it.