Need some input-suggestions...

[Easternarcher]

Well, I was semi-retired from bow building until this month.
Now I am tasked with building a bow for a family member who wishes to hunt with it.
He's looking for approx. 50lbs at 28in draw. and he's been advised (not by me) that the bow should be 66-68in ntn. I plan on recurving the last 8-10 in. as I've done on other bows and it seems to work well.
What I want to do is build several bows at once, hoping to ensure at least one shooter from the bunch. I'm kinda in a time crunch too as I'm travelling his way at the end of Sept.
The woods I have to work with are as follows:
Backings
1. Boo
2. Maple
3. Hickory

Belly woods:
1. Pacific Yew
2. Ipe
3. Vertical grain Osage (well aged +/- 4 years).

Any suggestions on good combinations here? I'd like to hear about belly slat thickness to start with for the yew as I've never worked with it before now.
I was thinking maple or boo backed Yew
hick backed yew or osage, and boo backed Ipe.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[okie64]

Hickory or boo backed osage would be my first choice. No need to build several bows at a time especially if you are in a time crunch.

[Badger]

   66" to 68" is a good length for a hunting bow. I would not go shorter than 64".  As for belly slat thickness. Unless you plan to use a core or a power lam I would use a minimum of 3/4" thick for the belly lam. If you decide to use a 1/8" core you could get by with 5/8 thickness.

[bubby]

Gosh boo backed yew, hickory or maple backed osage , boo backed epe, boo maple yew tri lam are all good combos

[Easternarcher]

Gosh boo backed yew, hickory or maple backed osage , boo backed epe, boo maple yew tri lam are all good combos

Ya, I agree..all those combos sound great.
boo-yew combo works well..I was thinking maple backed yew but maybe the maple won't handle the load there.

[bubby]

The maple will handle yew , i just think boo/yew or boo maple yee would make a screamer

[DC]

I just finished a Boo backed yew. I really like it.

[bowandarrow473]

You can certainly get quite a few great combinations out of those woods, but I would do a BBI.

[Marc St Louis]

If you have good quality Yew then I would use that with a Maple backing.  The two go well together

[Easternarcher]

Thanks for all the input...
Not sure about the quality of my yew....Looks pretty good to me, but that's why I want to glue up some other combos in case one or the other fails.

Boo-ipe is always a pretty safe bet. and my ipe is excellent stuff.

[Pappy]

No advice on what you are doing but look forward to seeing what you come up with, sounds like some pretty good advice from folks that know in above posts.
 Pappy

[Easternarcher]

So lets say I decide to do boo backed yew or maybe maple backed yew.
what dimensions should my yew slat be?
I know what to do with the ipe and osage....but yew is something I've not worked with yet.
Should the belly be crowned or leave it flat and round the edges(of course)?

[Knoll]

No advice on what you are doing but look forward to seeing what you come up with, . . .

+1 !!

[Springbuck]

 Just about ANY combination you want would work, but I would probably put the hickory or boo on the ipe.  With that much good stuff in my garage, I'd be looking at pretty matching colors.......oooooo,   shiny.....

  Is this a R/D bow?  Badger says 3/4" belly lam thickness, but with a power lam and stuff, and some width 3/4 TOTAL starting thickness usually is enough for me.  A bit thicker with the yew.  68" sounds really long to some people, but it's not, and takes a 28-29" draw really well.

[Easternarcher]

Just about ANY combination you want would work, but I would probably put the hickory or boo on the ipe.  With that much good stuff in my garage, I'd be looking at pretty matching colors.......oooooo,   shiny.....

  Is this a R/D bow?  Badger says 3/4" belly lam thickness, but with a power lam and stuff, and some width 3/4 TOTAL starting thickness usually is enough for me.  A bit thicker with the yew.  68" sounds really long to some people, but it's not, and takes a 28-29" draw really well.

Not R/D...reflexed some with recurved 8 in. tips...non-working.
3/4in. seems awfully thick to me., and the set of billets I worked down to 1/2-5/8in already, although I have more if needed. I am toying with the idea of a 1/8in. tapered bloodwood core lam under the boo. And I normally do use a power lam.