Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Elnathan on June 26, 2013, 03:19:41 pm
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Hi,
I have a hickory-backed osage stave I am hoping to make into a kind of generic D-bow with a draw-weight of about 60 pounds. I am thinking of making it about 1-1/4" wide at the handle, tapering from mid-limb to about 3/4". Note sure what the thickness should be, but I was thinking of cutting at 3/4" thick and working it down from there. The stave is 72" long right now, I will probably cut it down a bit but I am not quite sure what my drawlength is ( I might want to try for a medieval-style draw to the ear, but maybe not...)
Does that sound about right to y'all?
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First figure out your draw length
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About 29" will do, I think. That is measured to the back of the bow, not the belly.
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29" is a healthy draw length so I probably personally wouldn't go below 68", initially. I overbuild my bows so 1 1/4" is getting small to me and I would be thinking my 65 lbs. goal is possibly going to be a thick bow. Most of my flat bows are anywhere from .4 to .7" thick when nearly complete so I would not go below one inch thick roughed out, personally. I would shoot for 65 lbs. because I could put more time into finishing and shooting/final tillering and know I would be below weight- ~60 lbs.
So I would start out at 68 or 70" long and 1 1/2" wide and get to a point in my final tillering where I'm cleaning up the sides of my bow with sandpaper (lots) knowing that I'm now going below 1 1/2" all the while I'm watching tiller and set and all of that. Depending on how healthy it was looking and feeling at some point I might decide to cut the length, like, 3/4" off each end.
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Hmmm. The piece of Osage is barely 1 1/2" as is, and due to the rather snakey nature of the hickory backing this is going to require some creative clamping....Would 1 3/8" work by any chance? Any suggestions for tip dimensions?
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Build it and find out. Hickory and osage are heavy and so don't make the best long bows. It might a relatively slow bow as a D-bow cuz you got a lot of wood moving but the heavier weight might make up for it. But there's a lot of wood moving on that bow. I'm big on waiting for serendipity to dictate my bows, maybe to a fault, and you already have a limited width to work with so you have no choice but to end up under 1 1/2". To me that's a good thing. So the more narrow you can make the last 10" of the limbs, the better--get the mass down. Go narrow.