question on bow dimensions and tbb I

[mitchman]

i was reading in tbb I and i want to build one of the bows it mentioned in the performance section. its on page 90. its an eastern woodland bow. bend in the handle.    i really want to build one like this. but it doesnt state all the dimensions.  would someone help me out. i dont know the real name of it.

[Hillbilly]

The bow on page 90 in my TBB is a cane bundle bow    As for dimensions, each piece and species of of wood is different. If you're wanting an Eastern Woodlands bow, good general dimensions would be about 66-68" long, 1 1/4"-1 3/8" wide midlimb to midlimb, tapering down to about 5/8" nocks. Rough the thickness out about 1" in the center, 3/4" at midlimb, 5/8" at the nocks, and work it from there. Tiller it so that it just barely bends through the handle, if the handle is too bendy, it'll jar your teeth out with handshock and likely take a lot of set. Are you using the ash stave?

[mitchman]

ya im using the ash i cant wait to start it. im in a cast now from snowboarding . i get it off tomorrow so ill start soon. thanks for the dimensions. i cant wait.

do you think that i can piggy back that stave?

[Hillbilly]

I probably wouldn't try splitting a piggy back from it. It's not too thick, and ash, even though it splits really well, tends to run out for no reason sometimes when you're splitting it in the plane you would be to piggyback. Watch out for those snowboards 

[mitchman]

well i was thinking if i cut out the first one from the top i should have the other one on the bottom. i would try to back it if it works out. so do you think that would work. is that not called piggybacking.

[Hillbilly]

Yep, that's piggybacking. If you try it, do it with a saw on that ash or you'll probably end up with no staves instead of two if you try to split it.