Here are some of the bows I've made or aquired.  Most of the bows I've made have been tested to destruction, and there are several I've started but not finished.

     OK, so here are three bows I have pictures of.  They are, from left to right:  1) an old 45 lb "Wolverine" English style longbow, with horn nocks and fiberglass(?) backing; 2) my first bow, a 28 lb working handle maple flatbow; 3) my fourth bow, 40 lb pyramid style cherry flatbow described in "The Traditional Bowyers Bible." The first picture shows the three bows strung.  You can see that they all have a very low brace height for the string, but I've moved to a larger brace height since the picture was taken.  I still like a low brace height, and I can hold the bow such that my wrist doesn't get hit, but I had the brace height so low that the back of my thumb was getting hit.  Ouch.
 
 
 
 
 

I received this bow as a gift from a friend, who found it among her possessions.  We don't know how old it is, or really anything about the bow's personal history.  It is a D-section bow backed with either fiberglass or a fiber-board of some type. I think the wood could be either yew or oak, but its stained so its a little hard to tell.  The nocks are horn, traditionally shaped.  The only markings on the bow are a decal that says "Wolverine" and a stamp in the backing that says "KIBBE 45"  If you can tell me more about this bow, please email me.

The bow draws and shoots pretty well, but with some handshock.  Since I have been shooting it, the string follow increased from about 3/4 of an inch to 1 1/2 inches, but seems to have stabilised there.  Its also a pretty stable shot, when I'm in practice, being consistent, etc.  Once, the string broke completely through while shooting.  The arrow almost reached the target, the bow seems to have sustained no damage whatsoever.
 
 

This is the first bow I made, and it is still shooting.  I made it according to the starter bow specs in TTBB, out of the straightest grained maple board you ever saw.  It draws about 28 lbs, but is so whip-ended that it shoots a low arrow speed.  On the other hand, there is absolutely no hand shock :-)  This bow has at least 5,000 shots on it, and really hasn't changed much after the first several hundred shots it took to develop its string follow.

You can see the poor tillering job in the picture.  I got excited I guess, and removed wood from the wrong part of the bow.  I still occasionally shoot this bow for several reasons, nostalgia being one of them.  It's good for practicing consistency, due to the low poundage and the wide handle (high paradox).
 
 
 

This is my favorite bow that I have made.  Its made from a cherry board, with a glued on riser.  It is the pyramid style flatbow described in TTBB.  It is light (1 pound total weight), a very smooth draw, and very fast shooting with no handshock.  It draws 40 lbs, but shoots much faster than most 40 lb bows.  The limbs narrow down to a point, and the nocks are rawhide stops that are actually tied on (I'll eventually get a picture of it).  However, I accidentally gouged the edge while mking the bow, and it has developed some compression fractures in the lower limb, about 6-8 inches from the tip.  You can see this in the picture, but it gets much more pronounced after about 20 shots or so.  I still shoot the bow for comparisons' sake, but not very often.  I have been toying with the idea of backing the bow with something, but haven't gotten around to it yet.  We'll see what happens...