ELB

[DC]

Just in case I ever want to go into war against the French I want to check something. Do I multiply the width by .625 to check the depth? And do I multiply the depth by 1.6 to check the width? And a little R/D is OK as long as the string doesn't touch the bow at brace? Spliced handle OK? How about spliced tips in case I come up short? Is there a link to somewhere that lays this out. I tried and came up wanting.

[Pat B]

Ask on the War Bows. They will tell you for sure.

[DC]

I guess I should have thought of that

[Blayne]

If you work with millimeters it might be easier. 8mm/5mm and go up from there in multiples, like 40mm/25mm etc...

[k-hat]

Well  now doggonit Blayne, I been tellin' folks all this time standard is just as good as metric, and those fractional inches are actually quite helpful, then you go and give a case where metric is actually much better  

[Del the cat]

All that 5/8 th stuff is only because someone felt obliged to put a number on the width/thickness to stop people claiming flatbows were ELBs.
If you check your American longbows you'll probably find that is with the 5/8 rule anyway!
If you just make an ELB using your eye, you'll find it's well within the 5/8... you won't need to try and make it to the 5/8.
Generally they come out nearer 6/8 (or 3/4 as we sometimes call it  )
Just for info here are some dimensions from a 70# ELB
Yew ELB   71ntn  60#@28” 70#@31”
Left column, distance from nock (inches), then width and thickness in mm

4     16.9           14.5
8     19.3           16.9
12   21.4           17.4
16   23              19.2
20   24.7           20.6
24   26.1           21.4
28   27.2           22.2
32   27.7           23.3
34   28.2           26.2

If you check some of those figures you'll see it's nowhere near 5/8 (0.62)
E.G Mid limb 16" from nock  19.2 / 23 boils down to  6.7 / 8  about ( 0.8 )

Del

[DC]

If you check your American longbows you'll probably find that is with the 5/8 rule anyway!
If you just make an ELB using your eye, you'll find it's well within the 5/8... you won't need to try and make it to the 5/8.

Del

It's funny you say that. I was kind of part way into making a bow and I thought ELB. When I measured the limbs they were right at 5/8. This post was just to check my measuring/figuring method. It may be a moot point, I discovered a crack near a knot in the fade. I'm not sure I have enough wood to eliminate it.

[willie]

DC

what wood is your bow made from?

[DC]

Yew. It was half of a failed bow that has been standing in the corner for a year so I found another limb, spliced it on, roughed it out and discovered the crack. If I cut off this cracked limb I will still have half of a failed bow standing in the corner. I do have an odd number of billets though