SPLINTERS AND SAWDUST
I have been a craftsman most of my life. It all started when my dad gave me a jigsaw when I was only six years old... I made a couple of boomerangs and one or two of them actually almost came back. Over the years most of my bread and butter comes from running my own business as a carpenter, but my true passion is working in my shop down here in sunny Florida. I am always making and inventing things. I made over 1,300 Ashiko hand drums when I lived on the beach and caught a lot of waves back then. Those were good times. A lot of my friends know me as MacGyver because of my ability to fix anything. In my thirties I made about 35 surfboards and sailboards mostly as a hobby. That craft got me interested in composites and working with fiberglass and resins.
In 2012 I made my first bow. It was a 50# red oak self bow with a fiberglass back and it shot a whopping 150fps. I got online and did a bunch of research to find out that 150fps is really slow compared to the speeds a modern composite bow can achieve. So I rolled up my sleeves and started making my own fiberglass laminations and made my first reflex/deflex longbow. Since then I have experimented diligently with bow designs and laminations to come up with a number of bows that are smooth shooting and achieve great arrow speed. With faster arrow speed comes more penetration and a lower trajectory for better accuracy.
Making bows is my passion. It is a very challenging craft. And one I will never think I will get bored of. When I am not in the shop I spend a lot of hours thinking of how to improve on design and performance. I like thinking out of the box and have come up with some new ideas and techniques that have improved the performance in my bows.
I am very Thankful and Grateful to a number of highly skilled and talented bowyers that have shared their knowledge with me. I have distilled all of their teachings and used them to develop my own techniques to make a unique and excellent shooting bow.
To make a better bow is never ending. My ultimate goal is always to produce the highest quality and best performing bow I can possibly make.
Thanks for taking the time to view my site... Rich Redd
I have been a craftsman most of my life. It all started when my dad gave me a jigsaw when I was only six years old... I made a couple of boomerangs and one or two of them actually almost came back. Over the years most of my bread and butter comes from running my own business as a carpenter, but my true passion is working in my shop down here in sunny Florida. I am always making and inventing things. I made over 1,300 Ashiko hand drums when I lived on the beach and caught a lot of waves back then. Those were good times. A lot of my friends know me as MacGyver because of my ability to fix anything. In my thirties I made about 35 surfboards and sailboards mostly as a hobby. That craft got me interested in composites and working with fiberglass and resins.
In 2012 I made my first bow. It was a 50# red oak self bow with a fiberglass back and it shot a whopping 150fps. I got online and did a bunch of research to find out that 150fps is really slow compared to the speeds a modern composite bow can achieve. So I rolled up my sleeves and started making my own fiberglass laminations and made my first reflex/deflex longbow. Since then I have experimented diligently with bow designs and laminations to come up with a number of bows that are smooth shooting and achieve great arrow speed. With faster arrow speed comes more penetration and a lower trajectory for better accuracy.
Making bows is my passion. It is a very challenging craft. And one I will never think I will get bored of. When I am not in the shop I spend a lot of hours thinking of how to improve on design and performance. I like thinking out of the box and have come up with some new ideas and techniques that have improved the performance in my bows.
I am very Thankful and Grateful to a number of highly skilled and talented bowyers that have shared their knowledge with me. I have distilled all of their teachings and used them to develop my own techniques to make a unique and excellent shooting bow.
To make a better bow is never ending. My ultimate goal is always to produce the highest quality and best performing bow I can possibly make.
Thanks for taking the time to view my site... Rich Redd
