Another board bow build question

[Blood Trail]

I got a couple of osage boards I've ripped to 68-72 inches long, around 2 inches wide and they are an inch thick. I wanna make a boo backed osage longbow. This will be my first build. The question I have is I heard that you can make a thinnier, smaller bow that will still be strong and shoot fast. I got some plans off of poorfolkbows.com when he did a red oak build along. It goes something like this:

-.5 inch tips
-10 inch riser
-gradual taper from the tips down to and 1.5 inches (the largest width of the bow)

Not sure if those plans with work from osage and bamboo.

I'll shooting for 65-70# at 28 inches.

Any ideals for this newbie?

[Pat B]

1 1/2" to 1 3/8" is plenty wide enough for a boo backed osage and if you get your boo down to 1/8" thick at the crown that is bout all the width you will be able to get.  First you should pre-tiller the belly slat so that both limbs bend in a smooth even curve. This wil give you an even bend if you add reflex at glue up.
  You can make your tips 1/2" for now but plan on narrowing them to 3/8" after you are sure everything lines up at first brace.

[Blood Trail]

Thanks again!

[lesken2011]

Here is a good build a long with a similar piece of osage. He backed it with hickory and it is a holmgard/mollegabet design, but there is a lot of useful information in the build a long that may help.


http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=5129.0