What's your favorite bendy handle design?

[Cardboard_Duck]

I was just out shooting some targets and shot all of my bows and realized that the two bendy handled bows I have made are my favorite ones to shoot.

One that I have is osage, is 58" ttt, pulls 50# at 28",1 inch wide at the handle and tapers to 1/2 inch wide at the tips. It tapers from 3/4 inch at the handle to about 7/16 at the tips

The other is a BBI that is 64" ttt and pulls 53# at 28", it's 1" wide in the center and tapers to 1/2" wide at the tips and it's 1/2" thick in the center tapering to about 5/16" thick at the tips.

I think the next bow I build is going to be a bendy handle and I was just wondering what other people had for designs/wood choices?

Thanks in advance.

[kleinpm]

I don't know that I have a favorite bendy handle design, but nearly all of my bows bend in handle.

I hate shaping grips and dealing with fades.

Patrick

[RyanY]

Short bendy handle bows are really fun to make but warbows are probably my favorite. 

[Fred Arnold]

I thoroughly despise bend in the handle bows. Everyone of them I've ever shot just felt unorthodox to me. But I'm getting old and senile

Actually I have 2 in the works that partially bend thru the handle so I might just be partially senile

[bubby]

i've got one i got from halfeye, it's a sweet shooter fer shure, Bub

[Cardboard_Duck]

I guess I just love the simplicity of the bendy handle. In fact when I shoot off of a shelf now it just feels unnatural, but I could do without the fletching cuts...

Does yew make a good bend through the handle bow? I want to try something other than osage or a BBI this time.

[WDELongbow]

To me, it feels so natural to not have a formal grip, and allow the middle region of these bows to just rest on the base of your thumb/hand.  If you grip VERY lightly, the handshock is a non-issue as well - at least on mine. A heavy arrow helps greatly as well. Mine don't even have grip wraps or rests. I shoot the arrow off my hand. If you like Native American style bows, there are a bunch to choose from of this design.  Creek/Muskogee, Choctaw, etc.

[Badly Bent]

I'm a big bendy handled bow fan. Fun to make , fun to shoot and good hunting weapons too. I like most all selfbows and started out making american flatbow design selfbows first but since that first bendy one was made thats been about all I've done for awhile.
 
Some give just a little at full draw, some are shorter and bend more thru the handle, all arrows shot off the knuckle. Gonna start trying
some shorter bendys like Half eye and jon w and some others make, will be a real challenge for me.
Greg

[Dictionary]

My draw weight is around 45-50 pounds at about 28 inches. I dont use a scale now i just feel the weight by pulling on it. For a bendy handle, anything over 66 inches FEELS overbuilt. Like its too much limb for such a draw at that weight. So i really like about 64 inches long bending a good bit in the handle and tapering all the way to the tips. Some folks like leaving the tips stiff. I don't and i don't think the natives did either. The entire peice of wood was bending 

I really also like those short bendy handles that half eye,ken, and others turn out but i make my bows from saplings and i dont care to push the crowned wood to its limit by making it any less than 58 inches.

[Dictionary]

would you guys agree that small problems with the tiller don't affect a bendy handle as much in terms of durability as it does with a stiff handled bow where the limbs are "seperate" from one another?

[George Tsoukalas]

I like to make bows that bend slightly in the handle. Sometimes I make them with fades and sometimes without. Jawge

[Cardboard_Duck]

would you guys agree that small problems with the tiller don't affect a bendy handle as much in terms of durability as it does with a stiff handled bow where the limbs are "seperate" from one another?

I'm not a voice of experience here, but I think you're right. The stress is spread out evenly across the bow instead of having two stiff areas to worry about. IMO bendy handles seem to be easier to tiller as well, I seem to have a problem working around the fades 

[George Tsoukalas]

I find them easier to tiller. Kind of hard  to explain but tillering a handle bow the upper and lower limbs are separate while in  a bend in the handle bow it is one functional tiller. Jawge

[lesken2011]

My first bendy handle bow was actually an accident. I was making a hickory backed ipe with a stiff handle and it popped off. With some guidance from several folks on here, I completed the bow as a bendy handle. It was 64" n2n with a pyramid taper to the tips from the 10" handle area. Other than smoothing out the transition in the fade area, I never really touched the handle area again. It bends right at my full draw. The bow turned out so sweet, I have made several since.