DIY Bow Build - American Long Bow

Hey Steemers!!
I'm back again with another bow build! This time I decided to make the American style long bow. It will be made of red oak, backed with fiberglass, and wenge limb tips.

I started with a board of red oak from Home Depot 72 inches long 1.5 inches wide and 3/4 inch thick.

I planned on using black palm wood as a handle overlay but decided to save it for another bow.

I wanted the riser/handle to be a bit more robust so I added another piece of red oak to thicken it out. Now, its time to glue it up.

I use Titebond II wood glue. Dries fast, cleans up with water, and the bond is 100 times stronger than wood.

After that dried, I glued on 3 strips of mesh fiberglass with a layer of glue between each strip. Trimmed the fiberglass to the size of the bow and I was ready to glue on the wenge limb tips.

Once the limb tips were on, I used my round file/rasp to cut some temporary string grooves. I'll use these in the tillering stage.

Before I start tillering, I wanted to paint the fiberglass. I tried a black and white, but eventually decided on just straight black.

After painting it, it was time to tiller. I've had a few people ask me questions about tillering so I'm making a special post just focusing on that process.

So, here, lets just say I tillered it and shaped the handle. The final outcome was this.

I glued on a leather arrow pass/strike plate and put some muskrat fur on the arrow shelf for smooth arrow flight off the bow.

After making a string and testing the weight, I marked it and sprayed it with 3 coats of polyurethane for protection from the elements.

Here's the final look of the bow and a short video of how it performs. It came out to 30 pounds at 28" draw. Very good target bow. Stay tuned for the tillering post and thanks for following along!! (^_)