Okay, hyper-experienced slinger though I am , I'm still a rather amateur bowyer, and have a question that may or may not elicit facepalms from you more experienced bowyers.  If I had two 1.5x.75 (I think that's called a 1x2, but I don't really remember) pieces of wood, namely harware store red oak, could I glue them together, essentially making a 2x2 and carve a D profile warbow from that?  Obviously, I'm not suggesting a full weight 100 plus pound bow, but rather a scaled down model.  Would the oak be resilient enough to take the pressure of the D profile, or is it more suited to a flatter profile?  Would it behoove me at all to put a less dense piece as the back with the denser piece as the belly, or perhaps use poplar as the back?

If that didn't make a whole lot of sense, it's because I injured my finger the other day, and it hurts a little to type so my train of thought was a little disjointed.

Thanks for the response.

My draw length is 34 to 36 inches.  The Mary Rose bows were around 78", so that'd be the length, but I could make it longer without a problem.  Poundage? Maybe 50-70 pounds.

I meant a D shaped cross section, not profile.  I have heard that woods such as elm are more suited a cross section resembling a rounded off rectagle rather than the deep D shape.

What do you mean by the neutral plane? Flat on flat?

Where does one go about obtaining a hickory slat without resorting to the internet? The stores around here don't seem to sell it.  How thick should said slat be?

Look how to properly use the glue first. secondly assuming you back it with silk, canvas, burlap, or more traditionaly rawhide, it is concievable.

However I would really suggest using those as arrows or tomato poles and get a different piece of wood. Even sucessful board bows tend to be kinda slow, espicialy if you are a new bowyer. Look for a local park or make a friend with someone with a lot of woods and cut a hardwood sappling from there 3-12in thick. With this you will have a much higher chance of a good working bow.

Thunder Chief wrote on Sep 9^th, 2011 at 3:00am:


If you can find a decent hardwood lumberyard in your area than you can probably find a hickory board. Make sure it's real hickory, not Pecan labeled as Hickory. Either have them cut it there into 3/16th inch thick slats or find a local cabinet maker or carpenter that has the tools to do the job. It's simple for a professional. It will take them all of 5 minutes to do, though they might charge you for it.    I would go with 3/16th thick , 2 inches wide and as long as the length of the board.

Don't worry about the neutral plane comment just make sure that the boards are positioned one on top of the other like a sandwich and have at it. IMHO you would be much better off simply getting your hickory slat as the back and using your denser red oak board as the belly. The two red oak boards together seems really overkill to me but then again I don't build English style warbows nor any bow that draws 36 inches. Remember the basic rule. Double the intended draw length and add 10% for most straight wood bows.


You can make it using a D cross section just understand that Red Oak is not as suited for such a cross section. It does not have the elasticity of yew therefore there will be a lot more string follow in the finished bow.  It is not the type of bow I would try to make from Red Oak if I was relatively new to bow making. In fact it is just not the type of bow I would try to make from Red Oak, period. But it's up to you. It will be a learning experience if nothing else.  Don't let that deter you though. Make what you like.

I like Pecan for a bow wood, just not for a backing slat. If you go through the trouble to find a proper grained pecan board to cut backing slats from you might as well just make a pecan bow IMO.  Although it is in the same family of hickory, not all in that family have the same properties. Kind of like Mulberry is a good bow wood, but most experienced bowyers I know would take Osage over it any day.

Maybe I'm not looking at this the right way but as far as I can tell it's pretty much impossible to do a proper D cross section (English longbow)  with a 1x2. Gluing them together then cutting them down to a more manageable width/thickness will give a proper weight bow and still give the D cross section. Definitely not the best design for red oak but sometimes your not looking for a rocket launcher of a bow, just a fun project to make.

Either way I think his best bet is to slap on a hickory backing and leave off the other board. It's not going to be an English Longbow style but it will make a good bow.

No harm in getting second and third (and many more) opinions though. Primitive Archer is a good place as is the Leatherwall.

Yea and one thing I should mention is it is really hard for me to visualize new dimensions just based on numbers.  I don't make English longbows so this is just based on an understanding of how other bows are made. My best guess is that to get the cross section he will have to take quite a bit of that second board off in thickness (as well as take off quite a bit of width on the overall bow) and still leave it quite long, or otherwise you are right, it will be a beast of a bow.

I don't necessarily think it's a great idea, especially for a beginner to try, but when I see questions like this I immediately start trying to puzzle out how to make it work, even if it won't be great by any means.

I like ash but I really like elm. I think elm and hickory are fantastic beginner bow woods because of their tensile strength, but hey they are great for the more experienced as well.

Thunder Chief wrote on Sep 11^th, 2011 at 2:29am:

Things come in two sizes, "two" large or "two" small.

Sometimes it's not easy to do a straight comparison. In general Maple is considered better than Red Oak. But every tree is going to produce wood of a different specific gravity. You might come upon a really dense piece of red oak that may be better than your piece of maple. That's just how it works. Most Birches are also considered slightly better than red oak.

A lot of it is just up to the skill of the bowyer. Some woods, like Osage or Ipe are so far better than red oak that even an average piece of those will better than almost any red oak you find. But that's not to say they are automatically going to make an amazing bow. There is a lot of skill involved in a making an amazing bow that only comes with experience.

And a masterfully made red oak bow is going to be a thing of beauty in itself. So I wouldn't get too caught up in different woods just yet. Sure, mess around with the different woods if you like. Some are more forgiving of mistakes than others, and on top of that it's just fun using different woods that have different attributes... But don't get the idea that some newer bowyers get that a slightly "better" wood is going to some how make an amazing bow. Your bowmaking skills are what make an amazing bow. The wood is just the canvas you work on.