working on my first ELB

[kevinsmith5]

Ive got a hickory backed Ipe elb in the works and have some questions fornthose with more experience (as this is my first ELB). I 've glued it up at 1" width, 1/8" thick thick backing and 1/2" thick Ipe belly (to make 5/8" thickness) and 74" length. Ive tapered the last foot of each end to final tips of 1/2" width and 5/16" thickeness. The entire length of the belly is rounded now and I've sanded the back all the way to 400 grit. Its bending to a nice arc....here's my problem. At 10" of limb travel on the long string (roughly brace height of bend) I'm at 70 lbs....that seems a bit much.

Should I run the taper all the way to the handle area? Say only have a 7" section at the center with full thickness and width?

I cann see my goal of making some 35 lb ELB'S will require the use of some weaker core woods, which is a shame because Ipe is the cheapest hardwood for me right now (picking through the decking material at the wood lot)s

[tattoo dave]

I think those woods would work fine, if you're goal is 35#. You just have to taper farther down. Not sure if you want to go all the way to center of bow though, but if ya want to go from 70#'s down to 35 ish, you got a lot of wood to remove. I haven't made any ELB's, so maybe the ELB experts will chime in. Good luck and keep us posted. looking forward to seeing it finished.

Tattoo Dave

[kevinsmith5]

This one isn't going to 35 lbs. Id be happy with 70-80 at 32". But I think right now its probably more like 150-170....