Do I need to buy better staves?
scp
sugar maple, and birch trees I cut down at home. Nothing special about
those trees. In all probability staves from them are mediocre or worse.
Out of about 50 bows, two particular bows from an unknown tree (I was too
careless to notice but probably just white oak) shoot better than all
others. They are much heavier than others of similar volume. They shoot a
400 grain arrow 145FPS at about 40#. But that's also the speed I get from
a 40# fiberglass recurve. It must be my terrible release as even my
cheapo 50# compound only tops at 180FTS with the same arrow.
To cut to the chase, I would love to make some bows that shoot 180FPS at
50# with 500 grain arrows. Do you think I can do that with the common
staves I have or do I need to buy better staves?
scp
My 55# compound bow shoots well over 200FPS, fast enough for me not to be
able to follow the flight of arrows. That's what I don't like about it
especially when I have nothing to kill. No, I'm not concerned about the
cast of selfbows that much. I don't even have the tiller tree yet. But
150FPS can feel rather sluggish sometimes.
scp
Maybe we need a forum for bow making as a physical exercise. ;-) We might
be able to "catch" more youths that way. I would love to make high
performance bows. But I would not be spending a lot of money or even time
to do so. If I can make myself get out of the chair for an hour everyday,
that would serve my purpose. As you can see, I'm spending that time to
talk about "doing it." Anything but actually doing it.
Still I have the nagging questions about the staves I have. Can they
actually be made to shoot 180fps at 50# or at least at 60#? Hence, I
ponder about the premise of the mass principle. I suspect we must have
some bowyers here who feel that it takes certain wood to make decent
bows. But let's not go there.
Has anyone who is not a master bowyer ever made a red oak selfbow that
shoots 180fps at 60#?