Howdy to ya all. This here is quite the nifty forum. Kinda reminds me of going over to the campfire all the old timers are sitting round just to hear the stories. There certainly is alot of handy information here.
I have just strung up my first homemade piece. A basic maple sapling longbow. The bow is sixty six inches end to end. About twenty seven pounds at twenty eight inches. I put a slight recurve in the last ten inches of each limb. The grip, even thickness and diameter, eight inches either side of the center and tapered two inches to the limb thickness. I reckon the grip section will need to be changed in the future as it seems to me that a shorter grip section would allow a more simple and less agressive bend in the wood, as well as engaging more wood in the limb.
I still have to even the limbs a tich. I am going to fabricate an "bow drawing jig" with a 2x4 and a rachet strap for that purpose. I have a dozen more maples debarked and drying as well as a hawthorn trunk I just sawed lengthwise for future projects.
