Help with a White Oak D bow

[PatrickH]

I have only made flat bows with stiff handles (half a dozen successful ones about) I have a rather straight stave of white oak that is about 74in long. It has a bit of a crown (from about a 6" diameter stave) so I wanted to try my hand at a bend in the handle D bow or ELB style. Would anyone have any advice or know of any diagrams I could use to get a general idea of the roughed out dimensions? Is it a viable wood type/design? I know with a white wood that a wide limb is preferable but I don't know how wide is too wide for archers paradox in a bend in the handle bow. Maybe I am overthinking it lol. Any help would be appreciated.

[bownarra]

White woods can make good elbs but keep the belly flat.
rough out dimensions for 50#ish would be  - keep it at 74 and cut nocks at 72", handle section 4 inches, 1 inch above center, 3 below.
1 1/4 wide in the middle 12 inches, 4 inches either side of handle.
Then taper to 3/4 wide at 8" from the tips.
Taper to 5/8ths at the nocks.
See how set goes and if you have more than 1 inch by 20" draw, heat treat the belly and narrow or 'trap' the back.
These bows should have only a fraction of bend at full draw in the center section do not let it bend in the middle early on in tillering. Too much bend in the handle will lead to it being shocky. The bend should increase as you move along the limb - elliptical tiller. Narrow the tips if/when you fit horn nocks/overlays.

[willie]

74" is near warbow length. As I recall you like a long drawlength?

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,61640.msg862289.html#msg862289

this discussion may be a help.

a thickness cited for yew would be thicker than what is needed for white oak, but you need to start thick to give yourself room for tillering. you would need to have a weight goal in mind to get a starting width estimate. what is your weight goal and intended draw?

I wish I had white oak to work with, there have been some good bows made with it.

[PatrickH]

Oh cool thanks guys!

[Nasr]

 If you can get a different wood more suitable i would. White Oak takes a lot of set in my experience. To counter that I usually heat treat the belly but as this is a D bow idk if this would be enough. I dont want to discourage you i just thought i might give me opinion on the wood. Love white oak just not in those types of bows. Would work as a backing though. I am currently working on a white oak backed Ipe D bow. Good luck in your effort keep us updated.

[willie]

keep in mind, a very light weight bow might get too thin to tiller easily if it is too wide, or too narrow to remain stable in the hand, if your bow length is not reasonably proportional to your design draw weight.

[EdwardS]

Nasr, I've seen white oak that does and white oak that doesn't.  It's one of the traditional woods for my people's D-bows.  It's tougher than hickory, if you get the right piece.  That's the issue, though.  Lots of oaks are "white" and lots of oaks are "red" but they all have distinct properties.  Stuff just gets sold as red or white and it's not respecting the actual species.  I try to find actual species when I fell a tree.  I know that's not available to everyone.

[PatrickH]

In my flat bows I go with a 72in bow, I have a 30in draw so I start with the 68in flat bow design from TBB vol1 and add 2in bow length per 1in extra of draw length. For a D bow I have read you can make it significantly shorter. This interests me because last bow season I tried taking my 72in flat bow through the marshy thick West Michigan forest I hunt in and it was a nightmare getting it stuck on every bush and tree branch lol. I dont really want to make a short recurve with a backing because I want to be able to hunt in rainy weather (it rains a lot here in the fall) so an all wood bow seemed like the right way to go. So a shorter D bow seemed like a good idea. How short could I go with a 30in draw? is 1.5in width reasonable for an oak D bow? My flat bows are usually wider. I guess I should mention I am just going for around 50-55lbs also. (Sorry for all the questions lol)

[dylanholderman]

If you’re good at tillering 60”

You can make a bending handle flat bow too if you want, just really stretch out the transition from handle to wider limb.