Bow Making Madness: Multi-Limb Bows Explained

Does a 10-lip bow actually work or is it just a crazy experiment? Today I will answer the questions I get asked the most. Can my weird multi-bow builds really be shot? I've been making bows for 8 years now. I love experimenting with designs and woods. And my unusual builds usually get the most attention. I'm not exactly an orthodox bowyer. I like pushing boundaries. I built my first Penobscot bow in 2021. Since then I've kept raising the bar. Last year I built Hydra, a penta bow that went viral. And recently I finished Kaful, a recurve center shot cyclo-penobscot hybrid bow, which also sparked a lot of emotions. Both bows are made from black locust, which is one of my favorite bow woods. To join several bows into one, I use hide glue. I reinforce the joints with flax twine wrapping. Then I seal everything with another layer of glue and little bit of water-based varnish on the top of that. This creates a very solid bond. So Hydra is approximately 59 inches long and draws over 60 parts at 26 inches, while Kafulu is nearly 70 inches long, drawing 40 parts at 28 inches. Actually Kafulu is built a bit differently. It's a center shot style bow. This hole came from the knot I drilled out, so I used natural feature of the stave to create this style of bow. Additionally, the bows on the back are placed a bit differently than on the Hydra. They are next to each other, not one on the top of the other. It was a bigger challenge to build this style of bow. So, do they work? Yes, you can shoot them like normal bows and thanks to the extra limbs, you can adjust the pundage by twisting additional bow strings. That's actually a pretty cool feature. But here is the catch. With more parts, there are more potential points of weakness. They are harder to maintain too. You have to check several bow strings before each shooting. And of course, many limbs. That's why I don't use them every day. Performance wise, a simple sail bow with similar stats shoots a bit better. Also, Hydra and Kafulu have bulkier handles which make shooting not that comfortable. These bows are more about appearance and experience than pure efficiency. Penobscot style bows are made for a reason. You can make decent bow using poor quality woods using this design. With that many limbs and this kind of bow wood, that no longer makes sense. The loss of energy is too significant here. With that many parts. So my impressions after shooting both of these bows. Hydra. It feels sharp, quick and straight shooting. Overall, I really enjoy shooting this bow. Although I can't use the full potential of this stick. As you probably noticed in the shooting videos, I don't draw it to the fullest. It's a bit too heavy for me. Kafulu on the other hand is a bigger bow. It's more majestic but also slower and less precise due to the center shot feature. Generally, the center shot bows are shot differently than regular bows. If you learned to shoot the regular bow and you switch to this one, you will hit the target much to the right. And sometimes the arrow hit the second layer of the bow. The arrow doesn't fly straight. You can see this in the shooting video. So yes, these bows are impractical. Yes, they look weird. And yes, a plain self bow will perform better. But the process of building them the way they feel and look like, make it worth it for me. And judging by the number of views and your interest, make it worth it for you. I hope this video clarified a bit for you. Thank you for watching.