I made a longbow back in ~2004 and it recently broke :(
Got the leather on the limbs. Won't take a picture right now because I'd need to do it inside and my camera sucks with interior lighting.
I've tested danish oil on some leather scraps, and it seems to act as a good film sealer and hardener, and as well as that it also turns the yellow leather a nice rich brown. So I'll finish the entire bow with danish oil, then will do the lacing on the limbs. Will probably get pictures tomorrow.
The stave is basically done. I want to use a bit more oil on the leather, and will give it an opportunity to dry very well so the leather will be hardened slightly. The limbs bend extremely well now, the leather and string make the limb bending very smooth and uniform.
[U][media]http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/8315/bow1m.jpg[/media][/U]
I will probably trim down the excess leather on the limbs to make the ends look a bit more appealing, but so far like the very vintage0ish look the leather has given it.
Beautiful
Have you already decided what the first thing you want to shoot is?
You should make more of these and sell them to Renaissance Faire people.
I bet you could get a lot of money for a bow like that.
It's not really a traditional longbow, it's epoxy laminated and leather bound, epxoy and table-saws are not really something the bowyers of yonder would have had at their disposal :v:. The tradtional ones you'd probably see at Renaissance fairs would be self-bows made of yew.
A good bow ussually goes for about 400 bucks or so, I think. I think I'd like to make a new bow mold, though before I think about selling a bow. The shape design for this is nice but it's not very well optimized.
[editline]14th May 2011[/editline]
Speaking of which is there anybody good with physics calculation or engineering that would be able to make me an optimal bow-mold design?
How tall are you?
6'5
Bow is 5 feet, for comparison.
[QUOTE=hypno-toad;29830760]6'5
Bow is 5 feet, for comparison.[/QUOTE]
Damn, I'm 6'3". You're one of the rare bastards who I actually have to look up at.
Basically finished
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/831/bow2.jpg/][IMG]http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/2781/bow2.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[URL=http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/bow3.jpg/][IMG]http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/9127/bow3.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Did a flemish twist for the string. The bow bends pretty well and has a nice draw, but frankly half of me expects it to break. I'll go buy some arrows and start doing some shooting soon and see how it goes
You've done a damn fine job. The only noticeably odd thing I see is that it looks a bit more straight than I was expecting. Maybe because it's just really long.
Jesus would envy your woodworking skills.
Very nice indeed, you got a great talent there.
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