Hickory backed Ipe Design Help

[deadsilence]

Make whatever bow makes you happy, its your hobby and your spare time. We aren't all created equal and what seems too much for one person is nothing for the next person to pull off. I've seen some incredible 5th, 8th and 13th bows from folks in the past. Time in the saddle means squat. Drive, determination and understanding does.

A 3/8" thick slat of ipe will require a 3rd complete lam or at least a power lam to make a rigid handle bow.

Now, we are talking.  Thanks for the encouragement Drums!  Do you have any recommendations as for the power lam? Length? Starting thickness?

[PEARL DRUMS]

I dove in head first myself, so I get it. I would want that lam no less than 16" long with a nice, long, even taper from center each way. Start around 1/4" thick and hopefully you end up around 3/16" by the time your ready to glue up. Its job is simple, stop the bending.

[Jim Davis]

Let's start all overy.  If you had a piece of 3/8" ipe, what would you make with it and what would you starting dimensions be?

If I had that slat I would glue a backing of 5/16" hickory to it, glue on a handle block and be shooting that bow by the end of tomorrow. It would be your full width at the fades, straight side taper to 3/8" at the tips. And if I didn't give it away, I'd still be shooting it next  year, and ten years from now.

[PEARL DRUMS]

First off, Im not arguing with you Jim.

With only 3/8" thick ipe its very difficult to stop the bending by simply adding a handle section. There needs to be proper core thickness prior to the grip to stop it, i.e. power lam between the ipe and hickory back. Have a look at these pics and you will see how the ipe thickens as the fade starts, its essential to keeping the grip on. If your ipe was 1/2" or 5/8" thick, as seen in these pics, you could get away with simply gluing a handle section on like I did on this bow.

 

[GB]

What draw weight are you aiming for?  If you make your hickory backing 3/16" instead of 1/8", that will give you 9/16" thickness at the fades and 7/16" at the tips.  Never used Ipe, but I've made a few bows that style with osage and they all wound up a hair over 1/2" thick at the fades for a 45# bow.  The handle is only into the belly wood about 1/32" on one of them and didn't pop off.

[Jim Davis]

Pearl, I don't take your responses as argumentative. You have experience with ipe that qualifies you to offer your advice.

At my age and level of experience, I am just wanting to make arrows fly and not add complexity for its own sake.

Jim

[deadsilence]

First off, Im not arguing with you Jim.

With only 3/8" thick ipe its very difficult to stop the bending by simply adding a handle section. There needs to be proper core thickness prior to the grip to stop it, i.e. power lam between the ipe and hickory back. Have a look at these pics and you will see how the ipe thickens as the fade starts, its essential to keeping the grip on. If your ipe was 1/2" or 5/8" thick, as seen in these pics, you could get away with simply gluing a handle section on like I did on this bow.

How fast does the ipe taper out to a level-ish thickness on that?

[PEARL DRUMS]

About 3" plus.

[deadsilence]

Went to the local wood store and picked up a block of bubinga and he also had some short hickory slats in 1/2" and 1/4" thickness.  I picked up a couple of them and ran the 1/4 through my taping setup, which is a rigid oscillating sander with a rockerler tapering jig zeroed to it.  It works well for starting but you still have to fine tune by hand.  I thought it looked pretty good for my first one.  I'm going with a mix of suggestions from this forum and others.  I made the power lam 12" and I am going to use an 8" handle block.  I am still torn between making a flat bow and something with some curves to it.  I know a flat bow would have a higher chance of success but I do like the way a hybrid looks.  I'm waiting on some hickory backings to come in then I will be back for suggestions and advice.

Thanks thus far.

[Springbuck]

That may be a bit too sharp to do without kerfing the extremity.

I agree.  If I was doing that curve with an lamination that thick, I wouldn't try to do it all at once.  I'd pre-bend it with heat or steam, and ipe isn't particularly responsive to heat or steam bending.

Also, that's a lot of reflex. That's how much reflex I often put on a bow I had DEFLEXED 1.5" at the handle or so.  That curve at the end of a bow straight though the handle and inner limbs is gonna give you stability issues.  ESPECIALLY since you narrowed the limbs so far down by the handle. SKINNY and HIGHLY REFLEX tips are a recipe for bad stability.  Next time, leave your full width at least 2/3 of the way along the limb.  You can always narrow later.