Simon I don't want to hijack your thread but I have some input. Check out this one I made some time back. Wide limbs are easily doable. Curious to see what you come up with.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,38050.msg504634.html#msg504634
Hi Jon, now this is a sweet bow. Like Ed, I missed it somehow.
I'm interested how wide are the limbs.
well, I think the thing is to make an effcient osage bow with wide limbs and no shock. And instead of Jon I will go for a long faded, 2" wide and short recurved design.
Normally I would split that 2" wide thing in two 1" wide and make two bows out of it. But let's see what happens. I have a leftover splinter of another stave, only ⅞" wide. Maybe I find the time to do parallel a narrow ELB stile straight stick - just to compare.
I'm going for a symmetrical bow, marked the middle and the fades. I will rough reduce the width to save work time at ring chasing.
Working with the drawknife from both sides is a secure strategy
Same procedure at the tips
Now for the ring chasing, the width is in rough dimensions (eyeballing)
This is how the stave looks now:
Back
Center mark, and handle mark at the sides. The thickness is now 5/8” at handle.
I mark sections every 2” with numbers from the fades outwards. Fades are “F”, between fades A – C
Now the final width can be made easy by comparing the width of the sections on upper with the bottom limb.
Next step is the thickness taper. First I go for a parallel taper from fades outwards. The red line marks a distance of about 6 mm. A second line at the handle area and outer tips in a distance of 8 mm keeps this portions stiff enough for the desired tiller.
I keep all edges sharp, so it is a lot easier to go for the thickness taper
