Laminated and self bows

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Hi, had a bit of a run on longbows early summer, hadn’t made one for years, all my early ones were ‘staff or stave’ bows, branches or sawn from a board, axed to rough shape then spoke shaved and sanded, mainly using Ash or Hazel, thought I would try to laminate one for my son using local timbers , increase the speed and cut down on release shock, had a few epic failures in between the successes but came up with some very useful fast and light designs, would recommend it to anybody, but be warned it’s very compulsive !

wood wolf

They all look great William.

woodworking classes, custom furniture maker

Looking just great. I have some Bois D’ark that is drying that I want to try as a bow. We will see.
Nice work though.

—Madts.

Tor and Odin are the greatest of gods.

Thanks a1jim and Madts, next one would have a bamboo belly, been reading up on it, suppose to increase speed and flexibility.

wood wolf

Really cool.

Losing fingers since 1969

Great look Bow, well done.

-- Soli Deo gloria! ( To God alone be the Glory)

This is very cool. I have a small recurve bow with ~25lb draw, would love to make my own longbow but never seem to find the time to do it. What sort of draw weight do you get on your bows? Have you used them at all for hunting?

Rob, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Thanks guys, the two small ones for my boy draw about 18 lbs Manitario, the rest pull from 28lbs and up for target practise to just over a 100lbs for hunting, had a shoulder injury a couple of years ago and found archery brilliant for rebuilding wasted muscles, still can’t use the heavy bows but slowly getting there, just finishing a red elm/ash combo with a wild cherry grip that pulls about 42lbs with little release shock, like I mentioned above it can get compulsive but really satisfying, you really should make one when you have time.

wood wolf

Nice! I can see that building these would be addictive!

Rob, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario