Hello everyone,
I wanted to ask those of you who have experience with making bows from wood about my chances with my next undertaking. But first, a little context:
I've made four bows so far, all but one of which have broken, but each has been successively more powerful and took far more abuse to break. The first two were made out of big-leaf maple, and in typical novice clulessness, I assumed a branch roughly an inch in diameter would be effective, and made both bows too short as well, the first being 2.5 feet tall, the other being 3.5 feet tall. I unfortunately have pictures of neither of these. I do have pictures (which I will attach later, if you guys would like) showing my two most recent bows. The third I made is almost my hieght, and works acceptably, but performance is still pretty anemic, and full-draw would probably break the bow because it's made from a random stick of lumber. The rings however had better separation than my previous attempts, and I tried to keep the rings parallel to the back and belly of the bow, putting some research into it. This is the one that didn't break.
The last one actually had a draw weight heavy enough to fire some of my father's old compound bow arrows (very heavy, aluminum shafts) at impressive speeds, and I assume it was getting somewhere between 30 and 40 lbs draw weight. The bow was 6 feet of madrona, cut from a 2 inch diameter branch with few knots. Sadly, this one exploded spectacularly into six pieces.
I know now that you are supposed to cut the bowstave from a thicker section of tree, with rings farther apart. I have an eight-foot section of big-leaf maple that came from a branch downed in my yard during the last big windstorm. This piece is roughly eight inches in diameter, and weighs about 100 lbs. My question is this: is there any possibility that this will finally, FINALLY be the longbow that doesn't break? I inspected the wood for termite damage, and cut a section from the downed branch that seemed mostly unaffected and clear of knots. I'd say roughly a 90 to 130 degree sector of the piece is all good wood, with few to no defects. I just don't know if that will be spread enough in the rings, as must bowtaves are cut from the trunk, not from branches, no matter how thick.
Thoughts, anyone? Pics upon request.
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