Pat, I haven't made a whole lot of bows but two of them have been paddle style bows, and yes, it takes a lot of wood removal before things start bending. It's also easier than hell to develop a hinge once you are approaching weight, and then to miss weight correcting hinge/s. I think I read somewhere that a limb twice as wide is twice as strong but a limb twice as thick is eight times as strong. I like to keep that in mind when tillering paddle style bows, as you can expect the limb thickness to be about half of what you would expect for a yew bow with limbs half as wide, and that small amounts of wood removal across the entire width of the back can affect tiller in big ways (it just seems to take a while to get to that point, but all too easy to shoot past it on those extra wide limbs). Not to be that annoying, know-it-all newbie, but thought I would pass on my learning experience with the paddle stlye bows. Looking forward to watching it progress.