Marc's Bows and Arrows
Marc's Bows and Arrows
Composite Bows
Composite bows are essentially backed bows or bows made of more than 1 piece of wood. Simple composites are bows made up of no more than 2 laminations. This means
a hard backing such as a thin strip of wood glued onto a core or an animal product
such as rawhide or sinew added to a selfbow. Adding this backing will usually but not
always increase the performance of the bow. In the case of a hard
backing the performance gains are had by changing the shape of the bow
into a more efficient one. The glue line in a hard backing changes the
neutral plane of a bow's limbs adding more working wood on the compression side of limb and energy is also stored in the glue line when the bow is glued up. The use of sinew also changes the
neutral plane of the bow and changes to the shape of the bow can be
made as well but the real advantages of sinew is its high elasticity.
Shorter bows can be safely made this way allowing for high strain in
the wood and more energy storage. The use of rawhide generally doesn't add any benefits other than extra protection against breakage. This can help though in that the wood can be stressed more thereby storing more energy without worry of it breaking. I generally do not use rawhide because the return is not worth the extra time invested. To the left you will find buttons
that will take you to some composite bows I have made recently and in
the past. Some of these have been sold and others were custom made to
order. There are many styles of composite bows from longbows to
recurves and the more modern R/D bow. Have a look and see if anything
interests you
Below are some examples of composite bows I have made along with a base price.
The bow you see below is a Bamboo backed Rosewood bow I custom made for a gentleman in Wyoming. That particular bow was made to pull 55# # 27". It's profile is what is known as an R/D bow. Bows such as these are smooth and fast, they are also excellent shooters. Bows that I make in this style are known for being easy to use and for their accuracy. Bows such as these start at $375 and depending on the options go up from there
This next bow is a Hickory backed Osage with a
deflexed handle and static recurves. These bows can be made shorter
than normal for a given draw length because of the increased angle of
deflex in the handle. That particular bow is 56" long and draws 28"
where it pulls more than 60#. It is a fine shooting bow. These bows
are easy to use and are fine hunting bows but they are a bit more work
to make. Depending on the options these bows start at $450.
Now this next bow is a specialty bow. It is a
take-down bow that can be disassembled. This bow's limbs are made of
Bamboo backed Rosewood with a handle laminated of Black Cherry and
Maple. The bow is made in an R/D (Reflex Deflex) style and assembled using Brass bolts
and Brass locating pins. This particular bow is made to draw 50# @
28". A lot of work goes into making a bow such as this and most of the
work is done by hand or with hand tools. These bows starts at
$500 and depending on the options go up from there.
Here we have a sinew backed HHB static recurve with a
deflexed handle. These bows are very high performance bows and quite a
bit of work to make so consequently more time is require to make them. This particular bow is 60" long and pulls 65# @ 31" and was made for a fellow in CA.
These bows are pretty well bullet proof but do perform better in a dry
environment. Depending on the options these bows start at $500
This last bow is also a specialty bow.
This bow was made for a man to be used in the US flight-shoots, in which it set a new record. It is
HHB backed with Elm made in the English longbow style. This bow has a
very heavy draw weight, as can be seen by my struggling to pull it
back. It is 71" long, 1 3/8" wide at the handle and pulls about 120# @
30". The heavy draw weight makes this bow rather difficult to tiller. These bows start at $375 and depending on the options go up from there.
You can browse through more composite bows I have made using the links to the left. If anything catches your fancy or you have questions or want to order a bow then feel free to contact me at marc@ironwoodbowyer.com or use the contact me button above