I think i may have messed up already

[Brookss]

I did my research , but maybe not quite enough . I was reading "The Traditional Bowyer's Bible ,Vol 2" and Tim Baker told me to go buy a board and make a bow , so I did . I bought a beautiful piece of maple and backed it with red oak .  I shaved and sanded and finally got it to the point that the tips would bend up about 6 inches off the bench . I made up a couple leather boots and tied a sting in-between .I strung my bow , and tore my left bicep doing it . about ten seconds later the leather ripped and the bow straightened back out . Since I wasn't able to tiller the bow with a bad arm I decide to work on the grip .I don't have plans for a long bow so I decided to use a recurve grip and rest  design that I did have . After cutting  , I found Primitive Archer , The more I read the more I'm worried that my design will fail .
The bow is 72 " long the grip and rest (Center section ) is 16"long and 2 "wide and 1.5" at its thickest .that leaves 28 " per limb which taper to 1/2 " . It has not been nocked
My question , Is my bow going to break at the rest ?  Should I shorten the center section , to lengthen the limbs ? The way it is now I don't think I'll ever get the nice arch that I'm seeing on the bows here .

[mikekeswick]

Well it sure is simpler to shoot off the hand!!
Why do you think it will fail? Details will help.

[blackhawk]

I think your ok....just keep the bend away from the glued on handle so it dont pop off,which it looks like it is so far....keep going your fine

[Del the cat]

No it wont.
You have halved the width of the bow, so it is twice as weak.
BUT you have compensated by doubling the thickness.
Stiffness is proportional to the cube of thickness thus twice as thick is 2x2x2 times (so that's 8 times) stiffer.
So it's half as strong times 8 times as strong which is 4 times as strong so it won't break!
Del

[Eric Krewson]

Just about everyone who starts making wood bows has a little lingering "glass laminated recurve" mentality in one of their bow designs. I did on my first, center shot, locater grip, broke right in the sight window, lesson learned.

Hopefully you will be luckier than I was, but with oak, I don't know.............

[H Rhodes]

ditto what Eric said. 

[Pappy]

What Eric said, seems to be more and more of that now days,it will probably be OK as long as it don't bend at the fads,hard to tell from the picture but from what I can tell I would be more worried about it popping up at the fad where you cut in than in the middle of the handle. Nothing to do now but give it a try and see how it turns out. :)Good luck and keep us updated.
   Pappy

[Del the cat]

You've got to remember my definition of 'expert'
"The man who can put right his own mistakes..."
So press on and you will soon may eventually become expert.
Del

[scp]

My question , Is my bow going to break at the rest ?  Should I shorten the center section , to lengthen the limbs ?

It appears that you cut into the oak backing. I would never do that. I would consider backing it again with linen or something.

If you don't mind the 2" set you probably would get, you have enough wood left to make a decent bow. A lot would depend on your desired bow weight.

[Josh]

anytime you back a bow with another wood it is a good idea to make the backing go all the way through the handle riser.  There are alot of bending forces in the fades even if they remain static and the further into the handle you get the backing the better.  I feel the backing is going to lift at the fades myself.  I have seen it happen before.  Good luck though. 

[Brookss]

 I guess I'll name this one "Pessimistic Optimism" and build my first bow , learn as much as I can and shoot all the arrows she can handle before breaking .  My second marriage is much better because of  all I learned screwing up my first .
Steve

[Sparrow]

Steve , That is definitely the correct attitude. Good luck !  '  Frank