Smallest Stiff Tip / Nock Dimensions.

[bubbles]

I just wanted to start a thread about how small people make their tips and nocks.  Obviously a smaller, lighter tip improves performance and reduces hand shock (along with good tiller) but how small is too small?  Whenever I'm filing nocks and reducing tip size I just kind of go by my "gut" in how small to make the tips - but I'm wondering what people get away with on their bows.   I know there are some dimensions posted in the TBB, but it would be interesting to get everybody's opinion.   It would be awesome if people included measurements/pics and the co-responding poundage - and even included some info about any broken nocks/tips - ones that you took a bit to far. 

[mikekeswick]

Whitewoods - 3/8ths to 1/2
Dense hardwoods - 1/4 to 3/8ths
A nock generally won't fail unless you violate the back ring and even then it's still possible to get away with it. Remember that the stress in a bow is at it's highest next to the handle getting less out to the nocks. The tips of a bow have fairly small forces acting on them so you can go smaller than you think.
A bit of a misconseption IMO is that smaller/narrow tips reduce handshock. Handshock is almost entirely linked to the tiller of the bow, of course i'm talking about 'normal' tips here not some monster 2 foot wide lumps on the end of the bow.....

[RyanY]

I usually go about 3/8" wide at my nocks so I don't have to put an overlay on but I've gone as narrow as 1/4" wide on bows of several different kinds of woods. At 1/4" wide I feel the thickness usually ends up around 1/2" - 5/8" thick. I've never had a bow break at the nock. I once made a hickory bow with 1/4" tips and pin nocks with the "pin" being less than 1/8" wide and had no problems. Tips were 1/2" deep and, if I remember correctly, the bow was 50#@28". Had the same dimensions on a lighter red oak bow and both of these bows had stiff tips.

[artcher1]

I agree with Mike. Normal tips (1/2"x1/2") has nothing to do with hand shock. So that's about where I leave everything. But if you like the looks, and they do look nice, go for it!

[twisted hickory]

I have a bow with half tips and it has some 1/2 tips and almost no hand shock. I do know that if the last 8 inches of bow limb/nock is heavy it will have a bit of hand shock and it will be kinda slow. I am working on one with 3/8 nocks and it is going to be fast from first tests on it as well as not much hand shock. I think one thing to consider is if you are going to be nocking around in the woods hunting with a bow I perfer nocks that are a little wider/ thicker in the event of dropping the bow or hitting a limb while sitting in a ground blind. It would be a bummer to break a nock on a bow while hunting with it.
Greg

[DarkSoul]

The dimensions of tips in various bows (designs and wood species) can be found in the bowyers library. Certainly worth a look!