Lilac child's bow

[Lucasade]

I was cutting some lilac a couple of months ago and saw a bit of secondary growth nice and straight, just under 2" diameter and about 4' long. I thought it would make a good first bow for my little boy (he's 3 going on 6...). We've been working on it together - 3 year old and a drawknife, what could go wrong  , and last night I finished roughing it down to the centre and just under 1" wide all along:





I particularly like the wiggle on one limb 

The intention is to make this into a longbow, about 5-10 lbs at whatever his draw length is (I think it's about 15"). Should look and feel like a warbow for him! I've now strapped it down to a fencepost while it seasons.

My question is, where do I go from here? From what I've read I think that lilac goes narrow, but I'm not really sure how narrow. Are we talking 1/2" at the handle or a bit more?

Thank you in advance as ever.

[Del the cat]

Making low weight bows is tricky as they end up so thin.
As far as the wood is concerned, I don't think it matters as it will be so low stressed.
I expect you could make it any profile you like really.
He's not going to be critical of the tiller... just the length of time it takes to make it.
"Daddy is it done yet?"
"Why does it have to season?"
"What's season mean?"
Del

[steve b.]

Normally I would have had the bark off by sundown the day it was cut but in this case it will be fine for him.
Only narrow the handle to get his hand around it.  Whatever little that takes then stop.  Don't narrow anything else.
Make sure it is fairly dry.  Hold its belly against your belly at the handle and pull back on the tips, alittle, and see how it bends.  Look for that arc and remove wood from the belly to achieve that and leave the handle stiff.
Once it gets to bending evenly I would straighten it--Hold a straight edge or string from center of handle to tips and look for the most sideways bend in each limb and correct those with heat.  If both limbs are fairly straight but the thing is sideways near the handle then heat the handle and straighten that, so that a tip-to-tip straight edge lines up over the handle.
Taper the tips a few inches on each end.  Put a string on it.  Shoot it.

[Lucasade]

He won't be critical of the tiller but I will be...

I assume with this sort of weight I can go for a nice D-section without worrying about a weaker belly?