'Trapping' the back

[Bevan R.]

I have seen a lot of mention of this. I understand the idea but is there a 'formula' of back to belly for the trapping?

[aaron]

i don't think there is a formula as such, but the relative widths of back and belly would depend somewhat on the relative strenghts of these parts. So if you are trapping Black Locust, where the belly is a little weak, you might make the belly 1/4 to 1/2 inch wider. But if you put a willow back on an ipe belly, your ipe would be very narrow, with a much wider willow back.
($50 to the first one who posts a full draw pic of a willow backed ipe)
((I'm home sick today which is why i am responding to every post I can today!))

[Pat B]

I don't think there is a formula for trapping. It would depend on the characteristics of the wood you are working with. On the boo backed tri lam I built I trapped the back to about 1" wide and the belly was about 1 3/8".

[druid]

I often do sapling bows that are on cross section like pipe cutted threw the half, so I think it could be considered as very traped bows. Cross section is half of the circle, sometimes it had sides, mostly not.

[Pat B]

The osage pole bow I'm building is like that. I never thought of it that way, Druid but it is true. That's why these sapling bows work, narrow back and wide, flat belly.