Speaking as a proud Grandpa, I have the 2 most beautiful grand baby girls in the world. Can you argue?
      

When they came to visit this past summer they were fascinated with my bow building and wanted their own bows and arrows. Since we were going to visit them for Christmas, my wife and I decided to go all out and make bows, quivers, arrows, and arm guards. I generally make all wood bows, but recently tried my hand at two bows with modern glass materials. Since I wanted a little more protection for them, I elected to make their bows using fiberglass. They are 3 and 4 years old, but the 4 year old is almost 5. For the younger one is used a 36-40 inch reflex-deflex form I got from JamesV. For the older one I made pretty much a straight form for a reverse handle design with reflexed tips.

      

Details and pics below:

Bow 1
40" t2t
38" n2n

.95 inch wide
riser 12" tiger wood with black walnut I-beam
white coretuff belly with black glass back both .030
core black walnut .120
total stack = .180
.0035 per inch taper from the fades with pyramid taper to 3/8" tips
tip overlays white glass, black walnut, and yellow heart
handle overlays are white glass and black walnut

      


Bow 2
46" t2t
44" n2n

.95 inch wide
reverse or forward handle riser 10" eastern red cedar with hard maple I-beam and hard maple, black walnut, and eastern red cedar handle belly lams
red coretuff belly with black glass back both .030
core red elm .140
total stack .200
.0035 per inch taper from the fades with pyramid taper to 3/8" tips
tip overlays white glass, black walnut, and eastern red cedar handle overlay white glass and black walnut

      

both pull about 1# per inch

arrows 16" made from 48" long 1/4 " dowels cut into 3 shafts

quivers made from 3 to 4 oz split cowhide doubled and glued with kangaroo lacing.

         

     

The bows were a big hit. Two new archers hit the trail!!

Nice job Bulldog!

The bows turned out fantastic, great job for two happy little ones.

James

Thanks Chris!

Thanks, James for your help with everything!

I just noticed the pics I took were before I added the velcro shelf and strike plate.

Beautiful work on the bows.  Love the quivers and arrows as well.  

Very sweet...

Super!!! Way to go Grampa

no argument from me mate!
the gear is almost as beautiful as the little cherubs!    
a lot of love and care in that workmanship- kudos!!  

Nice!      
Dave.

just an uplifting story all around, in this tired old world, and what lovely work on the bows and accessories. Great stuff!

Way to go Santa...I mean Gramps!!!

Thanks, guys! It was a lot of fun. I didn't finish them in time to ship them before Christmas so we had to bring them with us on the flight. Wouldn't you know they cancelled our connecting flight and then lost our luggage! Fortunately we were able to fly stand-by on a later flight and were able to pick up our luggage the next day which was Christmas day. What a trip!

Nothing like grandkids - very nice!

that's awesome, lucky little girls