new here, saying hi and asking questions

[jape]

Hi all, just found this forum and thought I would poke around in the eternal quest for information. Excuse me!
I will try and remember not to curse or be grumpy, two consistent failings of mine.

I have only been into archery for about fifteen months and have a board bow, roughly elb, from red ironbark (eucalypt) with a bamboo backing.

Many bowyers here in Australia (I am an uprooted Englishman) use eucalypti but not only the species is important as they vary from matchwood to cast iron in properties, but also where they were grown. I am about to start my first bow project and will try local grey ironbark and acacia species.

But I have a problem in design. Because of a permanent back injury and other hiccups like torn tendons I really have failed badly all year to manage this bow which was 43 pound at 28" and is now, through some planing, about 35. Just too strong for me. It stacks like heck and has started to hold follow of a couple of inches in top limb. I tried altering my form to shorten my draw to 27 inches but it should be about 31 inches and I couldn't get any good results. Thus I need to build a bow that pulls no more than 30 pound at 30 to 31 inches.

All the reading I have done thus far suggests I need a 76 inch plus bow to achieve that, especially as my preference would be an elb self-bow.
I am open to suggestions about woods but it is too expensive to import osage or lemonwood from US and by all accounts some local species here in Aus. are as good anyway. So it comes down to design.

Does a flat-bow such as many make in the USA work better under the constraints I have?
It has been suggested that some built in reflex (or deflex I never know which is which) would help, any thoughts?
jape

[Hillbilly]

Welcome, Jape. Making the bow longer will definitely help with the stacking, as would recurving the tips a bit on a shorter bow. You may not need one 76" for a 30 lb. bow, though. The flatbow or ELB style are both good designs, but the flatbow style will work well with a larger variety of wood types than the ELB style. Width will vary according to the density of the wood used. The American longbow type is a good compromise for a longer, smooth-shooting bow, especially if you're wanting a thirty-pounder. Tillering of lighter weight bows can be tricky if the limbs are too wide and thin, so a narrow, flat-bellied design will probably be best for what you need. One advantage of wanting a lightweight bow is that a good one can be made from a bigger variety of woods.

[Bishop]

Jape, welcome to the forum, you will enjoy it here. these other folks are much better qualified than i to answer your questions.
welcome
Bishop

[The Burnt Hill Archer]

hillbilly has good advice. and the way i remember reflex/deflex and which is wich is that a recurve has tips that bend away from you. REflex has the same prefix. REflex, REcurve. dumb i know, but i still use righty tighty, lefty loosy sometimes

Phil

[Pat B]

Welcome Jape. Good advise above.    Got any pics of your bow we can look at?     Pat

[michbowguy]

WELCOME!!!
mbg

[jape]

Thanks for the welcome folks.

Coincidentally, I had been watching the Masters of the Barebow 2 dvd today before winding up the 'ole 'dialup' to check my email, and there is a bow on there I wanted to find out about, it looks a bit flatter than an elb and has a bit of reflex but isn't as flat and wide as some. Gary Davis of Michigan I think it was, so I shall do some googling.

I think that is what you meant 'Hillbilly', a narrower flatbow? If so, you are spot on mate! Thanks a lot.

When it comes to pics, I have a phone with a camera but now I am using Linux I can't find a way to get the pics into this box - more research!

I am looking forward to hunting through the archives and threads here for 'buildalongs', we do have some very good ones on ELBs but not flat bows on Australian forums and, well, I do anything I can to put off the scary day when I will finally get out the draw knife ...

[Gordon]

I recently built a low poundage (40#) bend-thru-the-handle osage flatbow for a friend of mine. It's 53" ntn, has recurved tips and is tillered for 28". With good wood you could make a 60" bow that would easily handle your draw length using a similar design.

[Hillbilly]

Jape, the "American longbow" design is basically a narrow flatbow. Many of them have stiff handle sections and flat or semi-radiused bellies. This design was used a lot in the pre-fiberglass days. Many of the well-known archers and bowhunters of the day, such as Howard Hill, favored this design.