About to make a yellow heart bellied english longbow, wondering what to expect..

[toomanyknots]

Well I am about to make my first yellow heart bow. It will be a tri-lam: bamboo backing, purple heart core, and yellow heart belly. From what I can gather from other bowyer's on here and other various depths on the internet, yellow heart is actually a pretty decent bow wood for the most part. The specific yellow heart I have right now seems pretty flimsy, not very stiff at all. So I am not sure I have some good yellow heart or not. The bow should be around 1" thick total (at the handle), and 76" from tip to tip after glue up, and maybe 1 1/8" wide (at the handle). My only concern is if I am going to crush the belly or not. I don't plan on gluing in any more than like 1/4" reflex or so, if that.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Make that boo razor thin and take it easy on the glued up reflex. Id suggest a string follow bow if compression is your concern.

[adb]

Should be no problem. I've done a yellow heart tri-lam in one of my workshops, and it came out great. I didn't use bamboo as the backing, however. It might be a bit overpowering. I wouldn't glue in reflex, either.

[toomanyknots]

Thanks for the advice guys. If all goes well, I should post some pics of how it turns out. I'll be gluing it up in a couple minutes. I got about two more yellow heart bellys left, so if this one turns out ok, I'll make up a couple more and see how they do as well. I sure do like how it is about a thousand times lighter than ipe.