Your thinnest bow

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Have you ever had a bow get so thin it starts to get a little scary? I'm working on one now that is getting to that point. It is heat treated black locust that is 52" ntn.  It has a small stiff handle on it so I made the limbs 2" wide at the fades going straight for half the limb lenght then tapering down to about 3/8" about 2" from the tips where I flipped them. I am aiming for 30# @ 25". Right now I have it drawing 30# at 17", this is where I ended up in length when I pulled the bow back to the weight I want while modifying the tiller and not working the weight down. The thinnest parts of the limbs are down to 3/16" before I start getting into the crown. Since I got it to this point I have scraped it several times and the weight has not changed noticeably, maybe a couple pounds. I'm just curious if anyone else has had a bow end up with limbs this thin? I can't wait to see how thin this bow ends up being.

[huisme]

1/8" thick 1" wide BL sapwood-on working limbs, gigantic handle. My first bow

Obviously didn't throw an arrow more than ten feet, but by George did it have a nice profile!

[mikekeswick]

The reason it is so thin is that you have made it far too wide.
Do the rest of your tillering (or most of it anyway) by removing wood from the sides evenly.
For 30# draw weight it wouldn't need to be any wider than about 1 1/4.
If you leave it so wide the wood won't be stressed enough and your bow will be very slow. Also know as overbuilt.

[Pappy]

+ 1 on what Mike said. That short and that wide it would have to be thin.
   Pappy

[4dog]

Ahhh now i get overbuilt ,,been trying to fully understand it..thanks mike.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I didn't realize that I had overbuilt it as much as I did. I intentionally overbuilt it since I'm trying to make a stiff handle on a short bow and mostly because the wood is black locust and I didn't want it to fret. But I guess I overdid it a bit. But I think I will start tillering from the sides like suggested. I'm glad that my mistake helped someone out with understanding terminology a bit. Hopefully making the tips narrow and light will help make up for being so overbuilt.

[BowEd]

Yep Mo like Mike said.Side tillering should get you the rest of the way.Handy tool for tillering to have in your mind pouch.Really reduces the mass on those limbs.Hopefully in a while here I'll show a BL too that is making a bow with hedge like dimensions[heat treated limbs though],but with a mass weight way below normal[what is normal?] for it's length and draw weight.

[TimPotter]

Brazilian Cherry wide limbed short pyramid bow. 3/16" at widest 2.5" yet still 60# at 25"