Kid's bow design?

[justsomedude]

I want to make a bow for my 8 year old daughter.
I have a 50"L x 2"W x 1.10"D split of what I think is Elm. I have scraped off the bark and am trying to get it to rough dimensions.
It was a 2" diameter tree.

If I leave the back round, what are some good design possibilities to try? I Want to learn from the experience so open to a bendy handle...pyramid...whatever. But I only have a little over an inch of thickness to work with.

And I like the raw cambium back. I plan to do some for myself like that in the future.

[PatM]

Elm bark will let go suddenly and even completely. If that is in fact Elm. A simple narrow longbow is your best bet with this stave.

[Swamp Thang]

My first success was from cedar elm 56" D bow and I forget how wide. But it pulls 15 lbs and set disappears after a dlfew hours of being unstrung

[justsomedude]

It's got a few challenges...knots/snakiness but I will enjoy that. I got it roughed. I decided to define the center of the tips AFTER getting it roughed as the bend was making it hard to see where they needed to go. It has a nice backset.

So now I am learning about how to work around knots. I am leaving extra wood around them. We'll see....

[upstatenybowyer]

Looks like you're off to a good start. Good luck!

[mikekeswick]

Looking good so far. Extra width at the knots is the way to go.
If you think you are getting thin then don't be afraid to narrow it further. Kids bows are great fun to make but if you start getting too thin for the width then making tiller adjustments becomes harder and harder to get dead right.

[justsomedude]

That's what I was thinking about width. I have a feeling I will have to narrow the limbs quite a bit more to get the weight down. The back has some humps on it which will be a good learning experience. I heated/straightened up the limbs and set some reflex into them. Will bust out the belt sander soon.