Hi I am new to this forum and first off let me say its great! I really love it and have made 3 slings so far. Yesterday I was extremely bored I went to a friends house who had some wood trim and we decided to make a bow. After about 3 hours this is what we came up with the bow is huge and is about 65# or 65 pounds of pull. I know this has to be one of the ugliest crudest bows ever made and I am looking for some kind of tutorial or somthing on how to make a real bow like the red oak longbow posted in this forum. Anyway here are some pictures!

this is the part where I cut in the handle so the arrows can shoot I origanally didnt do this and I wondered why all my arrows were shooting at a 90 degree angle to the right  you are suppose to cut into the handle arnt you? (shows how little I know about bows!)



here you can see its close to 71.5 inches long


A problem I ran into I had to actually use little tacks to nail the string offset to oneside so I could actually shoot it in a real bow how do they accomplish this or is the bow so skinny and thin it doesnt matter

Anyone who can point me in the right direction on how to make a real bow would be great thanks! although I do think my bow made completely out of guessing turned out pritty nicely oh and dont worry its not just ductape holding it together first the three layers were glued together with this really stong and flexible marine glue then they were lashed together with some rope and then ductape was put over the rope its suprisingly sturdy. ( i had better pictures but the internet is horrible right now for me so I will upload them later (not that anyone really wants to see any more of an ugly bow but hey its functional and thats all that matters right?)
its main purpose was to get me interested in the bow and let me tell you it did do that!

Hi thanks where do people learn how to make these things haha I am going to go and get some real wood later maybe oak and maple or somthing then I will try to make a real bow but this time I want to have plans or somthing before I start!

wow when you give help your really give it that was Exactly what I needed Seriously thanks so much. It was actually when I saw your bow that I figured I would try at all obviously I wasnt going for your style (my excuse because I didnt know what I was doing!) haha I just tried with some stuff I already had; left over wood trim. Those links are perfect though thanks I went out and bought some cheap arrows today and wow does my bow have some power shooting straight is another story though although I did have this one perfect shot  that I swear was exactly where I was aiming and the arrow went through my 6 layer cardboard target haha to say the least it got me hooked!   Where can I get some string that will fit the arrows I purchased correctly right now my string will kinda click in to the notch in the back of my arrows I thought it was cool until I broke the back notch off (string is to thick).  oh and I have a wood planer or rasp do you think that would work? I have a knife to if that wont work.  Finally what does the arrow rest on in a bow like yours?
Thanks for the help! I will probably get some oak tomorrow unless you know of some wood which you think will work better.

Hi thanks as for the slings I made they were also made rather differently from most posted on this site.  I made one braided one out of kite string 9 strands which was doubled up for a total of 18 strands thick. Another was fishing line and a cloth pouch and finally my favorite which is ductape (ahh I love the stuff I used to be into making duct tape wallets and stuff so I use it for alot of things) whith a cloth pouch. My aim is terrible but I think thats more of a user error than a sing issue. One really cool thing I found though were these fruits off this tree they are hard and the perfect size!
Update: I got to 6 foot long pieces of red oak today it seems really dense and stiff I hope it will work! I will be busting out the rasp in a bit