I've got a list of questions for this stave and I'll throw those in at the end.
This is a hackberry stave the back of the stave is the side with all the shadow. It's naturally curved like that. That is the bottom side of the branch.
Brief History of the Stave:
This is one of the first staves I ever cut. I cut it and split it and sealed it late last year. I let it dry. When I decided I was going to make a bow out of it the bark would not come off. I heard you could soak them and that would work. I chucked it in the pond for a few weeks and about half of the bark peeled off. The rest wouldn't come off easily. I chucked it back into the pond and forgot about it.... until today. I pulled it out and got all the bark off the back. It measures in at 55" ttt but the finished product will be a few inches shorter than that.
I want to make a good woods bow that I can do a lot of hunting with. 50#ish draw at 25"ish would be preferred. I was thinking bend in the handle bow but I'm not sure if the recurve will put too much stress on the limbs or how that will work.
Basically I'm asking advice on what style bow for such a short bow would work best for being in the woods and hunting.
I've never made a bend in the handle bow. Is it similar to normal bow except you just work the fades down until the top and bottom fades meet and you can feel it bending? I've always based my process off of what Billy Berger did in his 4 part
youtube series. I'm just not really sure how to approach this one.
Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks!