Made this bow in a day. The Siyahs are Maple ,the riser is Walnut, and the limbs are Bamboo floor boards that my son had left over from a project. 52 inches long, 41 lbs at 25.5 inch draw. 8 strand B55 string. This bow shoots a 415 gr. arrow at 151 fps. average. Draws smooth, and fun to shoot. I have made a dozen, or so of these bows, and doing a little better each time I build one performance wise.

Made this bow in a day. The Siyahs are Maple ,the riser is Walnut, and the limbs are Bamboo floor boards that my son had left over from a project. 52 inches long, 41 lbs at 25.5 inch draw. 8 strand B55 string. This bow shoots a 415 gr. arrow at 151 fps. average. Draws smooth, and fun to shoot. I have made a dozen, or so of these bows, and doing a little better each time I build one performance wise.

Made this bow in a day. The siyahs are Maple ,the riser is Walnut, and the limbs are Bamboo floor boards that my son had left over from a project. 52 inches long, 41 lbs at 25.5 inch draw. 8 strand B55 string. This bow shoots a 415 gr. arrow at 151 fps. average. Draws smooth, and fun to shoot. I have made a dozen, or so of these bows, and doing a little better each time I build one performance wise.

So cool.

Speed well over draw weight plus 100 fps. (Tim Baker)

In a day?

more pics.

Nice bow Bob. For a 25 1/2" draw that's pretty good speed. Always enjoy seeing your bows.

that is the basic structure of the glass-fiber 'horsebow' that are around. NICE idea using bamboo floorboard!

Very nice, did you do anything special regarding the back of the bow?

Mike, once you get the measurements for the limbs, siyahs,and riser, you can cut them out in short order with a good band saw. Then use hot glue ,and nylon string to lash together. I don't hunt any more, but I would tie ,and 8 strand ff string,and shoot a 450 arrow out of it. Hardest part of the whole build is getting every thing lined up the way is should be. Thanks. Steve as I build them I am bumping the speed by a few fps changing design a little here ,and their. Still out of bow wood, but have plenty of material to build this kind of bow. Bamboo likes to take set,so now I am belly heat treating,and getting a little less set. Todd,the back on bamboo floor boards are carbonized, and tough with a nice finish, so that is the way I leave it.Thanks

Interesting creation with bamboo

Not my invention Wayne. Dave Mead makes this type of bow, and sells bows like this, but with better performance. He has premium bamboo, and uses longer, sharper angled siyahs. Check out his web sight. I am impressed with the speed he gets with a simple design like this.

Who says you can't be fast and good. ;^) >>>----> Ken

You've been makin some cool stuff lately, i'd like to see some more of your plains bows.

Bassman it’s your recreation and looks OK, and if it shoots good all the better or back to the drawing board.

I am happy with my bows Wayne. Being resourceful, and making a nice bow is the fun part of it all. He sells his bows for a living, and I hope he can continue to make a good living doing it. He is a family man, and my kind of guy, and works hard at his craft. For me it is keeping my mind ,and hands occupied to keep my sanity especially in these bad times we all are going through right now.

Very nice. Are the limbs one piece or two? Also, how critical is straight grain on this design? I have made one of these bows and am working on the performance thing for the next one.

Two limbs joined at the riser with hot glue ,and nylon lashing. Back of riser cut on angles to get limb rise right off the fades. Akin to a reflexed riser. Longer ,sharper siyahs improve performance also providing you can keep limb set to a minimum.Belly heat treating helps no matter what wood you are using. By straight grain do you mean white woods, or Osage, or some thing similar? I have a string follow elm self bow that took excessive set ,so for the heck of it I put 2 siyahs on the limb tips. Does OK ,and is fun to shoot. Hope I helped a little.

You did help a lot. I was referring to white woods in reference to grain. Seems like it is very tough to find a straight grain board. The one I made shoots just fine, it's just slow. I think it's a bit too thin. I need to find a source of usable wood for limbs. Your use of bamboo flooring may be something I can find.

You can find it at stores like Lowes. No cutting ,splitting ,seasoning the wood ,and waiting to build the bow. Buy it .Lay it out,cut it on a band saw,taper the limb thickness, heat treat the belly with some reflex on a form ,and with a riser ,and siyahs, and assemble, and tiller. Done in a day. Build a string ,and shoot it the next day, and if it takes you 3 days, or a week no big deal. The bow above has a 9.5 inch long riser. Limbs are 24 inches long, and 1.75 wide for 18 inches, and tapered to 5/8 at the tips.Siyahs length are 5 inches long with 3 inches of rise. You can modify those measurements as you go to get better performance. That is at 25.5 inches of draw. Good luck. Any questions PM me.

Very cool! Arvin

Pretty dang cool!

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