Arachnid, you're definitely making progress with your bows! This one looks very good and shows a good tiller. It's balanced and well proportioned. A little bit of set never killed anyone, so don't get too upset.
However, it is important to find the cause for the set and try to learn from it. 2" of set is nothing terrible, but more than I would expect for an ipé belly. Remember that set is always happening in compression, so on the belly of the bow. I therefore I don't entirely agree with Pearl Drums, saying that "oak will take set easier than ipé". In principle it is true that oak tends to take set faster than ipé, but since the oak is only in tension in this bow, it doesn't take set in this particular bow. It would be a fun experiment to saw the bow lengthwise, along the glue line, and see what shape both wood species take. Wasteful, but a good learning experience.
I do agree with Pearl Drums about the idea that too much of the ipé on the belly was eliminated on the belly. However, I'm not sure that was caused by the bow being too wide. I personally think that 1 ¼" is a perfect width for the desired draw weight and - length. In my opinion, the cause for too much ipé being eliminated from the belly, is the thickness of the white oak backing. With the thickness of the backing being 3/16", you're going to end up with a really thin strip of ipé. The backing effectively "overpowers" the belly, and puts too much pressure on too little ipé. The best and easiest solution would have been to thin the backing, possibly even after you glued it to the ipé. You could have tapered it to 1/16" at the tip, but also an even 1/8" would have been helpful. On the other hand you could have made the bow longer, which also would have increased the limb thickness and thus decrease the stress on the belly. While Pearly's suggestion of a WOBI of 1" to 1 1/8" wide is perfectly feasible, you need to remember that you will then be making more of a longbow, instead of this flatbow. Just making the bow narrower puts of course even more pressure on the belly (and back), thus resulting in more set. You could make the bow narrower, but then it should also be made longer. That would require a more different design. If you like this design and want to stay as close to it as possible, you should shave off about 1/16" of that backing, resulting in more belly wood and less set.
Don't let this analysis take you down though. You've made a fine bow, and 2" of set is not terrible at all!
