You Finish Hickory Longbow Blank Review

Good First Time Bow Building Experience

Always wanted to make my own bow. This bow is nearly ready to go as shipped. It needs to be sanded and the bow tip nocks smoothed to protect the string. I'm not sure why the description says a bow stringer is not included. Mine came with a paracord which is used in stringing and unstringing the bow. There are two nocking points on the top limb - the one closest to the tip is used… read more to string the bow. This is a very safe setup and works well. I was anxious about the bow tips so I glued extra pieces of wood to build up the tips so I could have deeper grooves for the string loops to ride in. The grip was already shaped/rounded and would work fine for someone used to shooting with a very low wrist. It wasn't comfortable for me so I augmented it with another piece of wood to achieve a medium grip. This is proving difficult because the flat area left after the rounding performed by the builder is not very wide. I wasn't willing to remove material to enlarge the flat area - not wanting to create a weak point. Still working on this. The bow shoots well. It is very quiet. I made a longer string and have a brace height of 7 1/2". I am feeling a decent amount of hand shock but that is what I expected from a straight longbow. I was glad to see the bow was as nearly finished as it was and it made me feel comfortable completing the project. It is higher quality than I was expecting and is perfect for a first timer. I would recommend this product for anyone.

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I was really impressed with the quality of the bow !

I bought two of these, one for my self, and one for my brother in law with the intention of completing them together in the limited time we had on vacation together. It worked out great.

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Great great great.

great

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You finish hickory longbow

came within 1/2 pound of draw weight and length and required a minimum amount of finishing..great for first self bow

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Great Beginner Boyer Project

This was a great kit and a pretty good introduction to bow making. My one complaint is that the nocks were really poorly cut. They weren't uniform in depth angle or placement. I backed them with teak-wood tips and re-cutting the groves with a small round file. They are fine now. The string requires serving. I stained the bow first then, followed with eight coats of linseed… read more oil and three coats of polyurethane. I rubbed it down with steel wool after each coat was almost dry. I put a leather grip on it and baseball stitched it with synthetic sinew. (This was easy; I followed the instruction in the Three Rivers video.) The sanding and shaping was easy enough, took me about 4 hours. I worked slowly and carefully down to a fine sand paper and use a block, and a piece of broomstick to wrap the sand paper around for the curves. The bow was already tillered (as advertised) but just to learn how to do, it, I built a tiller stick and a "tiller gizmo" (another Three Rivers Video) and refined the tiler just a bit. I shot two dozen arrows from about 15 yards and it was as accurate as my skills will allow (a bit bigger than the tennis ball I use as a target). I bought the 40# bow but it feels heavier than my 45# Montana. It was quite fast and lively. There was a lot of string shock, but I haven't messed around with the brace height yet with the string untwisted it is at 7" but I'll increase that a little and see what happens) I bought beaver hair silencers to put it, but this bow is really quiet, I don't see any reason to install the silencers. The limbs took a set of about two inches after being strung for a while. The stringer is just a piece of paracord but it works just fine. I thoroughly enjoyed this project and will definitely order another. This took some of the mystery out of bow making and gave me confidence to take on more advance bow projects.

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Was what I expected

Has been fun to finish, haven't shot it yet. I put it on a scale when I first received it and it showed 50# at 28 inches.After backing it with rawhide and sanding it the scale now shows 49# at 28 inches. It seems to take a set of 1 1/2 to 2 inches after being strung for a little while (30 minutes to 1 hour). I couldn't get a tiller measurement of 7" without twisting the string too… read more tight, but was planning to make some strings for it anyway. (Just received the string making supplies and have built a jig so it woun't be long now before it is shot.

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Favorite new toy....that I can build.

I received my boat in about a week, and immediately set about finishing my new bow. I stated in a dark mahogany, then sanded it down to the bare wood leaving dark green lines and light-coloured sapwood. This gave sort of a Driftwood appearance. I used mahogany tip overlays and wrap the handle in jute twine then sealed the entire bow in 6 coats of polyurethane sealer. Long story… read more short it came out exactly as I intended it to which was better than I had expected and I love my new toy. There is a slight bit of string follow but she's good and broken in now with about a thousand arrows through it.

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Excellent hickory longbow

I waited for a year or so before I did a review on I use this hickory longbow for back yard shooting out door target shooting and out doors hunting use in the type of wether hot weather down poor in the rain even in mid a late winter spring did awesome all time mine is a 45 pounds I do want a 55 or 65 pounds my next one.

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Better than I thought It would be

Great bow for the money. Grip fits my hand great.

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Nice bow

Sanded & steel wooled the bow smooth. Stained & put 9 coats of teak oil on it. Looks and shoots beautifully.

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