Short bow Question

[hedgeapple]

I'm stepping way out of my comfort zone on this one.  So, I need advice from friends.

Specs:
55" T2T osage.
1 1/4 inch wide.
Flipped tips
I'm wanting 50# @ 26", NOT backed, bendy handle.

Initially, when the stave was longer, I was thinking of a round/oval handle.  Now that I've shorten the bow, I'm thinking I mind need to do a flat belly.

Come on PatB, Blackhawk, Osage Outlaw, halfeye and a much more folks who can't remember whose shorties I've loved.

[JW_Halverson]

You are using osage, right?  Totally doable.

Soy made a bendy handle thing for me that I think is hardly an inch across in the grip area, tapers to pencil tips.  It came in a 55 lbs with a 26" draw even as toothpick skilly as it is! 

Definitely doable.  But it never happened if you don't post pics!

[osage outlaw]

Sounds about right.  Maybe with a flat belly you could go just a tad wider but what you have will work.

[Pat B]

I agree. Get the limbs bending so you feel the handle give a bit when you hit full draw. Thats the last place I tiller a short bow, the inner limbs.

[hedgeapple]

For you JW, although this could be the last pic of this bow.  I noticed microscopic cracks in the recurve portion of one limb.  I sanded them down and now I've afraid I'm back to same problem that caused me to shorten this bow in the first place.  That problem being the tips are not thick enough to support 50# draw.  grrr.  That tip is now .490.  What do you all think?

[mikekeswick]

If the tips are just under a half inch thick they will definately not be too thin. Remember the stress in a bow is highest at the handle and gets lower and lower the closer you get to the tips. Tips can be tiny because of this.

[osage outlaw]

Dave, if you need to, you can put underlays on the recurved tips.  Check out Patb's short, recurved, sinewed build-a-long.  I think he shows how to do it on there.

[blackhawk]

A 26" draw on a 55" long n 1 1/4" wide piece of unbacked hedge? Piece of cake..make her bend where it needs too.. can you show a pic of these micro cracks you speak of? Im betting they re not an issue as long as there not running of the edge,plus if its out in the tips where its static it'll be fine for sure...and at a half inch thick you should be OK as mike said...on short bows or bows with shorter working limbs the limbs end up being thinner than a normal length bow,and at normal hunting  weights end up being thinner than that out at the end of the working limbs..stop fretting over lil imperfections...its wood not gl@$$

[hedgeapple]

Thanks Mike, Clint and Chris.  This is my first bow under 60".  I was guessing that the tips at .490 might just be thick enough, but wasn't sure.  I'm encouraged now. 

[blackhawk]

Well then...time to get off your computer and go bend that short lil blondy over 

[hedgeapple]

Well then...time to get off your computer and go bend that short lil blondy over 

Well, I wish I could have.  I had to run errands early this morning, work all day and then run more errands.  I got home around 9PM, exhausted.  I'm not as young as I used to be. 

Hopefully, Sunday evening I'll get it bending.

[hedgeapple]

I agree. Get the limbs bending so you feel the handle give a bit when you hit full draw. Thats the last place I tiller a short bow, the inner limbs.

Pat, I hear you.  My normal tillering is to see a slight give out of the handle, tiller the rest us the bow while maintaining the slight give.  BUT, I've been getting all my set pretty much where the 1/3 and 2/3 line meets in the limbs. It's not been much set; overall maybe 3/4 of an inch.  But, I want the bow at least flat.  So I'm thinking my technique needs some tweaking. I'm don't think I'm getting the middle third bending early enough, thus causing the set issue above.  I'm not saying I should get it bending first, just I should keep a better eye on it and get it bending earlier than I have been. 

THOUGHTS ??