Red Oak Pyramid Bow

Step 2 Select your wood

The easiest wood to begin with is red oak, as it's available at any hardware/lumber store. I selected a 1"x3"x8' board with the straightest grain I could find, as well as the widest growth rings and greatest weight relative to other boards in the stack. You will have to dig through the pile, you might need to visit several stores, it's worth it, bad wood, bad bow, bad injuries.

Comments

[buppythebupo]

Awesome instructable! I was wondering what kind and length of bow string did you use?

[meburnfire]

If it doesn't specify what kind of oak it is (my Home Depot doesn't), should i get it? Or would Maple be better for this kind of thing?

[esmith37]

You can tell red and white oak apart from the color of the wood. Red oak has a pinkish color to it, as you can see in the pictures on this page.

[AlienJim]

Red oak is a little bendier than white oak and red oak is better for bows than white although I used ash, which will make your bow a bit more power full and most likely harder to break, i made a red oak bow as my first and it snapped after about the tenth arrow I shot although it could have bin a bad piece of wood. and if you really want to use oak look up pics of white oak and red oak and then find out if it is red or white. also red oak glues better.

[Hazzard2theworld911]

well, i am not sure as to the exact type of Oak mattering; i think Red is just easier to work with, and tends to be more consistent from board to board.
Maple is another beast entirely! it's a very hard wood, used in high-tension and high-pressure applications that need to remain steady [think Guitar necks... they are almost always maple...]. maple just isn't that flexible, but you could try it, i suppose. let me know how it turns out!

[blaflair]

im making it out of ash. should i change the design at all? how strong is this bow?

[pdxnative1964]

Ash should work well. Remember, medieval English long bows were from Ash, and the could reach over 120 yards accurately & with killing force.

[mikekrey]

I am making this bow, but it needs to be usable for children (maybe 11yrs). Could it be scaled down but still be somewhat powerful?

[Tool Using Animal]

Yes you can scale it, just keep the proportion between draw length and bow length the same, about 2.4 to 1. The power varies with the cube of the thickness, so you'll need to experiment, but make very small changes.

[hamstanz]

Can someone please help me ?
I have found a website in my area (Christchurch, New Zealand) can you identify the best wood for building this bow Note: that i have never made one before

[bertotrumpet]

I've Built bows from red oak alot because it's an easy wood to work with. As long as the grains are straight and not running out the faces or sides you're ok. Never had one crack yet. But I back alot of mine any way

[BigShotUK]

In the 2nd image there are diagonal lines running across the end grain. I'm going to assume these aren't saw artifacts and are in fact growth rings... that being the case, isn't this a less than ideal bit of wood?

I've got half an ash stave waiting to become a bow (probably a flatbow, though a longbow is a possibility) so it's not an issue for me, but one thing I do know about is axe handles. In that you want the grain to be running straight up and down the end grain, across makes for a weak handle and diagonal half way between the two.

Whichever is preferable for a bow (I'd have thought grain running parallel to the belly/back would have been best) - surely the diagonal grain isn't a good thing.

Or have I missed something entirely (or even, are they just saw artifacts? it's really hard to see on a screen).

Nice job with the solidworks engineering, by the way. That's the kind of over-thinking I really like. I'm more inclined to start shaping it and get the right weight the old fashioned way - but the computer way is all good too. ;)

[Tool Using Animal]

There's an enormous difference between a board bow and a stave bow. Yes on a stave bow they should run parallel to belly and back. But in the case of a board bow, it's less important (mainly because  you will almost never find grain like that). What is important in a board bow is not the orientation so much, as that it does not run out of the faces or sides.

[BigShotUK]

Thanks for a very clear answer.
So in a broad bow like this you're looking for grain that runs parallel with the cut/planed face and sides of the board rather than looking at the orientation of the end grain?
I think that makes sense.
Certainly I can see why yon don't want grain that runs out... c-r-a-c-k !

[mattmolitor]

Do yourself a favor and go to someplace that sells hardwoods in particular. Better wood will be easier to find. If your in St. Louis go to Lumber Logs for the cheapest and best wood. woodfinder.com/listings/012869.php

[hajosmulders]

Why wide growth rings? I build boats and we typically look for closely spaced growth rings. That is older wood and is MUCH stronger.

Hajo

[icecoldcelt]

You are very right in the wood being much stronger. However; tightness of growth rings doesn't really indicate age, but the amount of growth per year. It's true in some areas that closely spaced rings are from older trees due at least in part to introduction of fast-growing cultivars or to drought periods (which occurred well in the past) which slowed the growth of the trees.

If the author could address the spacing of the rings, it would be appreciated.

[Tool Using Animal]

Per wikipedia
"This may be briefly summed up in the general statement that the more rapid the growth or the wider the rings of growth, the heavier, harder, stronger, and stiffer the wood. This, it must be remembered, applies only to ring-porous woods such as oak, ash, hickory, and others of the same group, and is, of course, subject to some exceptions and limitations."

[icecoldcelt]

Thanks for the correction and clarification. I was thinking more in terms of toughness, which is an entirely different material property. Clearly toughness is not what we're looking for.

[hajosmulders]

Thank you. I just learned something new!