narrow ipe

[barebo]

WOW!!!! Rich, that bow just LOOKS FAST and stealthy !!!! Would you be willing to give a brief description of the dimensions, and maybe a few suggestions on what it takes to make that style ?? The mass weight of that bow must be amazing ?? Also, if I opt for an Ash backing (that's what I have readily available) what would be a proper thickness for backing IPE to attain 55 - 60#???. If my IPE is 3/4"thick in board form, and I rip it to say 1-1/4" wide, will I be removing a lot of material, or should I make it thinner from the beginning - maybe 1/2" I'm a newcomer to this wood, and have some skills, but good advice from those that have made great bows helps prevent major screw ups down the road. I hate to see a nice piece of wood ruined !!! Thanks much for the help !!!

[Justin Snyder]

barebo, 1" - 1 1/8" wide is probably better suited for Ipe. I have never used Ash as a backing, but I like my backings on Ipe a little thicker than on others so I would go 1/8"-1/32". Ipe is so dense you will probably wind up with around 3/8" of ipe left after tillering.

[knightd]

Rich that is a great looking bow.. I find that once you start getting more reflex and deflex in them like the one in pic they can be real picky about width..

[Rich Saffold]

Dave, Ya there is a physical limit to the slenderness we can get away with, and why I posted that pic since I've had good luck with the stability of these modified ELB styles. I often use a thicker yellow bamboo which helps keep the limb mass low, but does get tricky to keep straight and well worth the effort though...

Barebo, This bow has its own thread about 9-10 pages back. Topics here move so fast that the occasional viewer misses these bows, and I posted it to show basically this. That you can keep it very slender in an ELB style, and use also Ipe as the backing..

Dave's  sexy bow, and my example both have a lot of deflex just outside of the grip, and this is basically the key to stability when you get under or very close to an inch in width on these backed bows..

The bow I posted here is with stealthy hunting in mind and I was very happy with how it came out, and why the finish non reflective.. I do make modern shiny styles as too and have a rather wild one I may post soon as well...

On wider limbs I will push the deflex farther out towards the tips since I like this look as well. Speed wise they are all virtually even from what I have seen chrono'd.

I like your "rug" David kinda reminds me of the huge Timber wolf I grew up with. He was a real sweetheart unless you were some dog trying to pick a fight

Rich

[knightd]

I like the modified elb as well.. I to have raised a female timber wolf.. I must say that she was the best animal I ever had.. She had a thing about Goats..

[Rich Saffold]

 Goats Well they can be rather tasty...

Barebo, I went and measured this bow since I don't remember if posted these dimensions like I should have on the thread, and since this is a "thin Ipe" thread..

7/8th's wide on either side of the grip and 11/16th's thick same spot and the "backing" is 1/4" so its sort of a laminated bow, not that I get wrapped up in precise terminology on these especially since there's 100+ subspecies of this wood.

 One of the first I did in this style  drew 80#@32" was 70" ntn and 3/4" wide through the grip, and  was a very heavy piece of Ipe.. I guess theoretically the heavier the wood the skinnier the bow one could make not that I'm trying to do that..   The leather on the grip was doubled to make it comfortable to shoot..

[recurve shooter]

i aint a bowyer, so i dont know, but i sure wanna see it when you get done with it. i love those slim ipe bows.

[barebo]

Thanks Rich, I'm getting a 1x6" that I'll rip into a few different widths, so we'll see what we come up with. It's a long winter here in central NY State !!!