Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Tim B on February 16, 2011, 03:01:37 pm
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Has anyone made a short paddle bow say around 55" out of Ipe? I am going to make one that is boo backed 2" at widest part of limb and try for as close to 26" draw as possible and hope for around 40lbs of draw weight. Any thoughts or suggestions?
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Yep, I made one about 47" long, unbacked, from an ipe board. Draw length was about 23" but I think the tips were too heavy -- the hand shock was in issue.
I would make the tips as thin as possible. Also, you could induce a little recurve in the tips during glue up. ;D
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Scott how long was your bow? The design you have looks really close to the boo backed Brazilian redwood bow I made that was 58" and 1 1/4" wide that shoots really nice. The piece of ipe I have for this bow was left over from a 10' board I had bought and cut into longer bellies for bows and didn't want to waste it. If all else fails I will make it for a kid but would like to see if I can get a short hunter from this one.
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I guess I'll try to go between 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" then with the 55" length and see what happens. Being 5" shorter it will have to bend through the handle to get anywhere close to 26" of draw length. Nothing ventured nothing lost eh?
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I made a gull wing white oak backed epe, 50" got 29" of draw @ 46# and a really smooth shooter, Bub
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Man that is impressive to get that much draw length from that bow Bubby, did the gull wing design reduce the amount of set that the bow would take?
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Scott was your handle built up on that bow?
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no noticeable set as the epe just springs back, plus the fact that there's less string tension they can stay strung for a long time with no apparent side effects, not sure you'd get the same results with a self bow thou, Bub
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Scott, thats a very nice bow. I think I ve missed the original post. Great work! Nice dogy!