I have to disagree with you. There are dozens of reasons why a bow can break. The limbs being too narrow is just one of them. Concluding that a wrong design (limb width) was used, just because the bow broke, is simply wrong.
I've never worked with osage, so I can't say for sure if a width of 1 7/16" was too narrow for the desired draw weight Easternarcher was after. It depends on the length of the bow, the draw weight and the draw length. But I think that width can't be that far off. Judging from the pictures, I'm pretty confident the hickory is the culprit - not the limb width. Yeah, maybe this particular piece of hickory was so lousy that a limb width of 4" may have been enough to give you a bow, but that would have been stupid. Hickory should not break like that, not even if the bow were underbuilt. If it does break like that, there's something wrong with the hickory itself. Don't use any more wood from this particular board. I'm not sure you should blame it on the hickory supplier; it could just be one faulty board in the batch.
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I agree wholeheartedly.
This hickory board came from the only local supplier that carries it. Can't blame them....the osage came from a bowyer supply place.
As for the design, I actually build most of my osage bows to around 1 3/8" width and 62-66" length...this one was at 68" overall. the osage was overly thick, maybe 9/16", the hickory was 3/16" thick. I planned on having lots of room to play with tiller etc. I was only shooting for a 40-45lb bow in the end. When it blew at only about 4" flex on the tree.
Did I overstress the limbs in exercizing them in floor tiller?....man if I did, it was doomed to fail anyhow in my opinion.