It took about a month, starting September 6. Actually, it has taken much longer to get to this point.
I began trying to make a Chinese horn bow, but the inner mulberry wood, harvested from our back yard, and the warped water buffalo horn gave way and the bow delaminated. I tried the Japanese yumi style bow, again with home-grown bamboo. Even with fire-tempering, it snapped it half. The one successful bow was made from a Home Depot oak board shaped into a longbow. But, this bow turned out too light at about 30 lbs.
This one turned out to be successful. The secret, I think, was in having a good test string and a bow scale. This helped me get to the right weight without snapping the bow in half.
Bamboo lines the back, while the belly is made of ipe. Sandwiched in between is purple heart. The finished draw weight is 45 lbs.
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