Red Oak Longbow

A demonstration of my first successful attempt at making a bow. This is a Red Oak board longbow. It's 70.5" nock-to-nock and 40# @ 28" draw.

Traditional Bowyer's Bible:
http://www.amazon.com/Traditional-Bowyers-Bible-1/dp/1585740853

Bow Building for poor people and apartment dwellers:
http://www.geocities.com/salampsio/index.html

Tandy Leather Factory:
http://www.tandyleatherfactory.com/choosecountry/choosecountry.aspx

Thanks for Watching!

*Update*
Since this video was uploaded, the this bow developed a non-fatal crack in the upper limb. I repaired it with sinew.

It then worked fine for the next few hundred shots until a few days ago when it was pulled and held at a 33" (mind you it's designed for 28") draw until it cracked and the person let go. This caused a second limb, unrelated tot he first, but extends from the back of the limb almost straight through the belly. The linen backing contained the break, preventing the bow from exploding, but it itself has begin to rip as well. Because of this, I Am going to retire this bow. Fortunately I have already made another bow, and amd working on several more at the moment, so stay tuned for more bow videos!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Bowyer
• Bows
• Traditional
• Archery
• Longbow
• Red Oak

[bassbucksnbeards1]

Hahahahaha the leather on his arm is tha same color as his skin

[Raynor35]

@bassbucksnbeards1 Yea, hanging outside a lot during the summer tends to do that.

[Icebarrage]

Did you not back it with fiberglass?

[Raynor35]

@Icebarrage No, I did not back it with fiberglass. It is backed with 100% natural linen! You should try it some time! easy to work with, authentic, and no glass dust!

[ERAplayer]

Hey there, I had a quick question about your grip. I'm building my first bow and was originally just going to leave it without a riser and not even cut an arrow rest, but I'm deciding against that now. My question is how did you rough out the sides of the handle after you put on the riser? Rasp, saw, what exactly? Thanks!

[Raynor35]

@ERAplayer I used a hacksaw to make some of the bigger, straighter cuts, like the actual arrow shelf itself, and then I just used a rasp to shape everything else.

[TheRobinAsshole]

@bassbucksnbeards1 stop beeing racist asshole!

[loadedClownZ]

@Ratd0g28 yeah i know of about 4 that are good, we have a type of wood similar to hickory in terms of bow wood properties so i'll give that a try.

[Ratd0g28]

@loadedClownZ There has to be some type of bow wood in your area. Do you have any trees around? Most hardwood trees will make a bow. Just got to get experimenting.

[loadedClownZ]

you americans and europeans are so lucky, good bow woods like red oak and ash and all those good bow woods are so easy to get, i live in australia and the other day i probably rang up about 4 timber shops and asked them if they sold red oak and 1 guy said " i've never heard of that species",i asked them if they had elm, maple, ash, birch etc.. and they said you cant get that wood in australia, it felt bad being told my bow making career was over before it started, and i love archery so much.

[toppertruthio]

nice work,im guessing youve made a few more since

[bmthbad]

nice bow