way to light

[penrosefred]

My first red oak board bow. Shot it 5 times and it diden't break. Hoo Ray. But it is way to light about 25 lbs. I had to take off to much tillering. I put 3 lam of dry wall tape on the back. Can I add something else on top of the tape to stiffing it up or is it to late? I would like to have about 45 lbs. This bow building is addictive. I am already looking forward to my next build. This site sure helped me a lot. I love it

[4est trekker]

I would hesitate to do anything else to the bow at this point if it's holding together.  Chalk it up to experience and make a youngster happy by giving it to them for Christmas.  Here's why:

1) With three layers of backing, there's an increased potential for fracture.  One layer is perfect, but adding more on top actually is anti-productive.    Also, tape, paper, linen, burlap, snake skins, etc. won't add any appreciable draw weight to a bow.  Sinew and wood will add some weight, but that's a project for your next bow    

2) Trying to make a 45 pound bow out of a 25 pounder is really shooting for the moon.  Even if you could get backing off and get the back sanded smooth enough to accept a wooden backing strip, you wouldn't be able to get a 20 pound increase without breaking the bow.  At best, you'd have a bow that is still way under weight (by 10 pounds or more) and that would probably take a significant amount of set.

3) You can pike (shorten) a bow to increase the draw weight, but again, you wouldn't be able to safely get anywhere near 45 pounds at a normal draw length with this bow.   For the future, however, taking 1" off each tip (for a total reduction in length of 2") will equate to roughly a 5# increase in draw weight.

Get yourself another board or stave and make some more shavings!  Keep it up!    

[clintopher]

You won't recover 20 lbs of draw weight...go ahead and start another.  That 25 pounder would make a great Christmas gift to some lucky kid.

On your next bow I'd recommend posting pics of the bow during the different stages of tiller and ask everyone here where to take off wood.  A lot of people on here have a keen eye and can give you spot on advice based on a picture.

Clint

[penrosefred]

Thanks a lot, really that is what i thought. Post picture, hell I can barily nav. this site, which I really like.

[Pat B]

I agree with 4est 100%. Time for your next bow and you said your were itching to start the next one so do so! d;^)
 Give this bow to the kid next door. He( or she) will love it just as it is!

[SSGN_Doc]

What are teh dimensions of the bow?

I ended up with similar results building a 72" longbow from a 1x2" piece of red oak.  Mine draws about 28# at 28" by the time I got it tillered down.

If you look at the thread in here that 4est put together on building a pyramid style bow from a 1x4" piece of red oak, my friend and I had much better results.  The first bows we built ended up at 40 and 50 lbs.  (the 40 lb was the result of a slight mistake with the band saw).

These pyramid bows may look a bit on the bulky side, but they shoot quite well and are overbuilt to the point that you should end up with a useable adult weight bow without too much trouble or money involved.

My pyramid bow: (67" ntn, 52 lbs@ 26", 56 lbs@ 28", 3.5" wide at the fades)
 

My 6 year old daughter shooting my first board bow attempt made from a 1x2: (28lbs @28")