center shot flat bow

[James Rodney]

I don't want a Glass or fiberglass bow.  I don't mind making mistakes and making several.  SO i'll omit the need for a short bow, and make something long. I'll go 70's in length if that means being able to make the draw that i want.  SO, starting over, forget everything else i've said.  If i want 30+ draw, @ 50-60#.. and a center shot. Flat bow recruve.. excuse me if i'm sounding stupid.  I'm still learning terminology.   

what would i need to do with those specs?

[bowandarrow473]

72 inches in length should be enough. I would go with a 5 inch handle and 1.5 inch fades to a 1.75 inch wide limb, holding that width until a foot from the tips and from there tapering to 1/2 inch nocks. Start your thickness taper a 3/4 inch at the fades to 5/8 inch at the tips. you will need to make the handle much thicker than the rest of the limb to accommodate your shelf so a thicker handle is necessary. Good luck!

[riverrat]

o.k. you got maple. you got dogwood. i never made a bow of dogwood. so ill pass on that for now. but i have used maple. its a nice easy to split, easy to work bow. i did not say its the best wood out there. i said its good for a bow though. o.k. lets adjust your draw. can you live with 28 in? i mean i draw 26 in. max. most times shooting at squirrels and soda cans i bet i half draw most times. why? i dont know but i hit them up close. maybe thats why. so could you live with 28 in? ok 28 inches doubled is what? 56 inches. its not the "best " bow wood, it is a newby bow, just sayin....lets go 60 in. and have a bow thatll shoot and you wont break right off the bat. hey im making a eastern woodlands bend through the handle flat bow as we speak. stay along with my post as i go, do the same as i do. {im not a guru or anything but ive made some bows} o.k. so its gonna bend through the handle, its going to be 60 in. long, better make it 1 3/4 in. wide just beyond the handle area for safety sake. lets make that bendy handle a good 6 in. your a tall fella.gives you plenty of room for your hand and your arrow to grace itself across your hand. might want to wear a glove the first couple arrows you make for it and shoot. off the hand takes some getting used to.have to make decent arrows not to cut yourself.we will cut in the handle area to 1 5/8 in. it wont be center shot. youll need to make a good spined arrow but it will be better than leaving it wider. gives you a little margin to work with. a little more forgiving that way.reflex is away from you, deflex is bending toward you. you dont want to dry out that wood fast as a kiln would do. its not winter and it will split, crack, get real nasty on you its still plenty wet. first things first. remove the bark. look down the stave, any twists? any sideways bends? any up or down bends? lets shape this puppy. lets say hey its straighht and its not twisty. o.k. cut it down to 61 inches {theres a reason} make it 2 inches wide. from tip to tip. make it 1 5/8 inches thick. let set 2 weeks on its belly on the floor under your bed.so you dont step on it, trip over it, or be tempted to mess with it any further. lol in 2 weeks ill get back to ya. Tony

[bowandarrow473]

Maybe some pics would help as well.

[James Rodney]

haha, ok.  I'll cut a fresh one tomorrow.. because the one i have does have a little twist in it.  I'm really looking forward to the dogwood stave tho, it's almost perfectly straight without knots, that i can see.  but i'll cut a fresh maple tomorrow. and a few more Red oaks.

[James Rodney]

i don't have any pics just yet.  i only have a few split and ends sealed.

[bubby]

I built a 72" ntn bow #60@32 with a maple board, if i can make a suggestion set the staves aside to season a while, get a good hickory board or hard maple board and make a flatbow, I'll send you some links for info and dimensions, great way to get going while the good staves season and you will get a great shooting bow, no problem cutting in a shelf but for starters only cut it in about three eighths or so when you get some experiance you can go deeper

[bubby]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html
You can use these dimensions just make it 70" overall length

[bubby]

http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/
Here's the link to jawges site lots of good info including picking out the right board

[bubby]

And i don't by that kiln dryed bs we put bows in hotbox's all the time

[bowandarrow473]

Try to get red maple if you can, the other maples are generally more marginal as bow wood. Red maple is a okay bowwood but vine maple and sugar/rock maple are very good. So try to gut one of those.

[Pat B]

Learn to build a bow properly, learn to tiller a bow properly, learn the terminology and once you get to that point you can build just what you want. Until then you are setting yourself up for disappointment. IMO   Not a good place to be, especially with some of the best wood bow builder in the world wanting to help you. Let them!

[riverrat]

if the dogwood is as good as a few of the guys mentioned and its a decent piece you have there, make the maple and oak bows first. better to screw up something not as good as a great stave.who knows, you might learn a lot from the first two to make a great dogwood bow. i made a few bows but i took several years break. i started back with the worst chunk of elm i had split out. why? i didnt want to make mistakes on the best chunk of elm i had.lol it turned out to be one of the funnest shooting bows ive ever built.or maybe i missed shooting a bow, any bow that much. but it turned out to be a good shooting bow.now im working that better piece.Tony

[JoJoDapyro]

The guys here will help you if you let them. Look at lots of posts. Ask lots of questions. You will learn a lot. I do everyday.

[Pappy]

Double you draw length 30x2 =60 and the non bending handle/say 4 inches and the fads/let go 1 1/2 fads because you want it shorter =7 + 60 =67 and build a non bending handle bow from the dog wood. 1 5/8 to 1 3/4 depending on the weight you want at the fads to mid limb ,then tapper to 1/2 to the tips. Tiller slow and easy and work it a lot as you move out on the draw length, this should give a pretty good chance at coming out with a shooting bow, mind you this is with good clean straight wood and border line of what I would go for if I was building a bow for 30 inch draw. If I was building one of that draw length for someone I wouldn't go any less than 70 inches. Bendy handle you can get by with shorter but I have very little experience with them so if you want shorter listen to what they have said above.  If you leave the handle a little deeper you can almost center shot the arrow on a stiff handle bow if that is what you want, and it seems to be.
 Pappy