Planning a Hickory or Maple war bow; any tricks I should know?

[Centrvm Medivm]

Hey guys. So I've finally talked myself in to start shooting war bows. I'm aiming for around 80-90lbs @ 32' and have access to some decent hickory and maple in my area. How should I adjust for the width/tapper and such? Would heat treatment be necessary here?

[RyanY]

If you're cutting your own wood I'd first suggest making sure its fully dry. For width taper on warbows or bendy handle bows I personally like to keep the middle 1/3rd full width and then taper to the tips. For maple or hickory I'd start around 1 3/8" wide and 1 1/8" thick in the center. Length? Maybe 74-76". Heat treating isn't necessary but you can do it if you want to. Do some research and look up other white wood bows the guys on here have made. You'll get an idea of what's attainable.

[brettd]

I just made one, hickory backing over maple, used TBIII for the glue-up.  Don't like the way it feels - feels stiff.  Since this was exactly my fifth bow, that almost certainly says more about me than the materials.  Mine is about 70@28, but I think I should have tapered the tips considerably more - plan to go back and do that and end up at 60-65 pds.  The maple and hickory I used were almost the same color and it looks like a selfbow if you take a very quick glance at it in a dark room.

-Brett the woefully inexperienced.

[AndiE]

Hi

I wouldn`t take maple for a warbow, but Hickory is ok.

Kind regards
Andi

[Del the cat]

Make it at least 2" longer than you think, much easier to loose 2" than to add it.
For 32" draw go for at least 76"
Yes you can get away with 70" if you like set and /or chrysals
Leave the tips wide early on to help counter twist/alignment issues.
Go for a wide belly, only round it slightly, basically just remove the corners, and probably heat treat the belly. all that will help avoid chrysals.
80-90# is a nice sensible weight and should be easily achievable.
Tillering a warbow has a different feel to a lower weight bow, you need to be apply full draw weight on the long string from the start. And only use a long string that is just long enough to slip onto the bow. Once 80# on the long sting gets the tips back 6" get the short string on it to say a 5" brace. You will find that 80# now pulls it back a surprisingly long way! But apply the braced 80# slowly as it is a much higher stress on the bow and the tiller may have shifted.
Del
Plenty of Yew ELB and warbow tillering on my blog (Google Bowyers Diary) it's mostlyl self Yew but there is one Hickory backed Yew and an ELM and Ash (Ash one was a real pig).