Red Oak Ishi inspired bow

[cmoore]

Picked up a piece of red oak the other day, it was fairly tight grained and light weight but the grain was perfect so I picked her up and decided to whip up a quick little board bow inspired by ishi (said to be the last known member of the yahi indian tribe). The bow is 44" in length and just shy of 2" wide at its widest point and tapers down to 3/4 of an inch. Draws about 25# @ 19" and has only taken 1 1/4" of set, the bow is unbacked. It's amazing these edge grain boards hold together so well considering they dont follow a single growth ring....I suppose though that the forces are distributed over several rings rather than just on one

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[Hamish]

Interesting experiment. Are you going to sinew back it? It would give you a few extra pounds
Hamish.

[Stickbow Hunter]

You sure like those short bows.

Jeff

[yeoman]

A bow can follow the grain without following a single growth ring. The reason people like to chase a growth ring in Osage and such is because that guarantees that the surface follows the grain.

A board of any ring orientation can potentially make a bow as long as the ring lines run straight and parallel. By doing this you can be confident the grain is parallel to the surface of the timber. The exception to this is if the tree grew with spiral grain: the ring lines will be straight, but the grain will be violated.