All wood takedown limb thickness, solid vs lam vs glass

[joachimM]

Takedowns are gorgeous, especially the one in the post above, I say God damn! I will admit that I just recently fell in love with them, self bows have that gorgeous ancient history and oneness with nature aspect.

A bow held together by nuts and bolts is, already by definition, not a self bow, nor a primitive bow. But what the heck. To each his own. I think bolts and nuts on a bow are about as attractive as Beyoncé in a pile of dung.

As far as the technical questions are concerned: you don't need power tools to make good and beautiful bows. Going slowly has its merits, and a hand-crafted bow will give you more satisfaction. 
If your goal is to have a well-shooting bow as soon as possible, you might as well make a PVC bow and give it a faux-wood paint job. Will be -IMHO- as close to a self bow as what you're making now. And they also come in three-piece takedowns with riser if that ticks your boxes. Or five-piece takedowns, and in any possible design. https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/115443350092709812365

Not that I want to convince you that way. Coming from FG and experimenting with wood indicates you're tempted by the light side of the force. Continue that way ;-)

[Badger]

 Many years ago I use to buy 1/8" thick X 2" wide strips of maple, walnut, whatever looked purty. I soaked them in boiling water and used gorilla glue to glue them up into recurves. Most of them that didn't break usually came in about 45 to 50#, I don't remember the length but most likely about 60".
This is about the time I found the PA archery sight. Hopefully our new friend will have a similar journey.

[chrisgedwards]

Thanks for the input everyone! Was really hoping to finish this bow up today by simple sanding and rasp but I guess I'll go in all the way... I'll either dry heat bend with oil or steam bend. I always hear dry heat is better for hickory.

Here are my 2 most recent self bows. Both are solid hickory with the longbow having a piece of Purple Heart on the riser. Longbow pulls about 50 at 27" and the plains bow (messed up the recurve i know) pulls about 45 at 18".

I really like making these display bows to put up on my wall, I've spent a ton of time making ones like these just to ruin them by keeping them strung and hanging. The rush with the takedown is for want of something to shoot and quickly replace when it breaks. PVC is blasphemous ;-p