ipe - hickory backed - out of my element please help me choose a design.

[peterslongbow]

Well I have this 72" board stave I think it is 1 1/2 wide or so. Its is already bending a big when I got the stave. I have had it for years and never did anything with it as I found the IPE so hard to work on, and I always have lots of yew wood around.

Anyways, I started with the spokeshave on the wood and its a slow process but am willing to do it. I was thinking of making a 70 inch bow perhaps very narrow like 1 inch wide with a flat cross section and non bending handle area. Most of the time I use a drawknife almost until sanding (i have messed up some good bows with this) but here I will have to shave off the sides and I don't have a bandsaw or even a block plane so this will be slow to make it more narrow, do you think it would make nice bow if it was almost 2inches wide ? 

I made a wide long bow about 72" long and about that wide out of hickory/boo stave I got from the same guy, and I didn't like the design, I found it clumsy and the hand shock and stuff was bad.

Any tips for nice design  ?

Anyways, I would like to make a 55 lbs bow perhaps 65.

What do you think so far ?

[sailordad]

if you make it 2" wide and it is ipe, that is going to be very thin

ipe doesnt take a lot to make a great bow, ytou can keep it narrow and a little thicker.
i always like a rounded belly when i use ipe.

if your only using hand tools,yes it wil take a while to reduce it to floor tiller etc.,however take your time this wood makes great bows.
i have made a couple from boo/ipe with only hand tools and liked the end results,hurried into one of them and ended up coming in under my intended weight
so just remember patience patience patience.
i wouldnt recomend a draw knife,theuy can dig in real quik if your not carefull,when you do ue it remember to use it with the bevel down.
i would recomend a hand rasp or a sureform.they work well on ipe,always wear a mask it can irritate your repritory system etc.

good luck

                                                                       peace,
                                                                             tim

[peterslongbow]

You got me thinking of a english longbow

So do you think I should go for a english longbow style with a d shape ? how narrow should I make it then ? how short could I make it for a 29-30 inch draw.

I like to make the shortest and narrowest bow I can if its going to be like that.

thanks

[Stonedog]

Even if you go ELB design....I would keep it NO wider than 1 1/4" wide at it's widest point.....

[Rich Saffold]

Elb style 1 1/8" wide tapering to 5/16th's tips. Perhaps glue it up with a subtle r/d curve, and scrapers work better on Ipe than most tools, and a bench sander as well.

[mullet]

  And to go along with Rich's advice, you use the bench sander, get a filter mask.

[Stonedog]

DEFINITELY get a filter mask....better yet get a respirator!