Big Red - 3rd Time's the Charm

Hey Steemers!
I finished my 3rd bow and boy is it a doozy! I'm extremely happy with how it turned out and wanted to show you some pics of the process and the final product. This isn't an instructional post, but you can see many of the steps I took to complete the bow.

I found a block of Red Heart wood and fell in love. I user it with a strip of red oak wood to make a riser block. A riser is the archery term for the handle of the bow.

I liked the red oak, red heart combination so much I decided to glue some small pieces together for my tip overlays. Putting tip overlays on gives extra strength to the tips of the bow.

Cut and shaped a thin 1/8" strip of red heart to be the riser overlay. Sanded and sized everything before starting the glue up.

Now, glue and clamp.

Next, I glued 4 layers of fiberglass to the back of the bow and glued my tip overlays on.

Tiller Time!!!

Now that I've got a decent tiller, I start shaping the handle. I was excited about this part because of the extra strip of red oak I put in. Look at how that worked out...

Normally, I'd paint the fiberglass backing because it cures yellow, the color of the glue. This time, I came across a 2" roll of red oak veneer. This would allow me to cover the fiberglass with the same wood the core of the bow was made with. My mistake was gluing the riser overlay on first. Lesson learned for the next bow.

After sanding the entire bow with 100, 120, 150, 220, & 400 grit sandpaper, I started putting coats of Danish oil on the bow. I put 5 coats on then let it dry for 2 days.

Once oiled and dry, I put on 2 coats of polyurethane.

I measured the draw weight, 65 pounds, and put on my maker's mark.

Finally, lets see how it shoots!!

It feels amazing!! Thanks for following along! Any questions or comments, hit me up! See you in the feed!

#ChooChooBaby #FullSteemAhead