D bow myths?

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Richard Saffold has to take credit for the bow,

 Kegan, yeah I build up the handle with leather and superglue

[Kegan]

Richard Saffold has to take credit for the bow,

 Kegan, yeah I build up the handle with leather and superglue

Leather handles sure are more comfortable, and it's easier to tiller wihtout those silly things in the way before hand, isn't it ?

[Gordon]

I find D-bows somewhat harder to shoot because I make them with the arrow pass that is wider than a comparable stiff handled bow. As a result I tend to experience arrow slap when I shoot them. That said, I do love the lines of a well crafted D-bow and how they feel in the hand.

[PatM]

 In Tim's defense he was writing this when many D bows were made from whitewoods. He and many others would agree that it is best to go a touch wider with whitewoods which results in a handle that can verge on too wide over 50 pounds.
 The recent rise in the use of Ipe gives the potential to make a very narrow, high weight D bow with none of the wider handle pitfalls of  the lighter woods.

[recurve shooter]

although i dont own one, i do like bendy handles over stiff handles. the one i made for my dad, with fifteen minuts of practice i was hitting as well with it as i was with my hickory elb. maby jist me, but i like bendy handles.

oh, by the way,NOMADIC PIRATE, you look like freakin rambo with a bow, aka ram-bow! yeah, im a dork.

[Badger]

      I think the D bow can be made very well from medium dense white woods in the 50# to 60# range keeping them narrow and just building them like elbs. When I was doing the research for my mass chapter I did stacks of D bows from all types of wood. For instance a 100# maple bendy handle bow around 72" long would average only about 1 1/2" wide.  Lighter bows in the 50# range could easily be made only around 1" wide. I preffered to make the bows about 1 1/8 wide and not worry about the 5/8 rule that the elbs use. Biggest problem I had was the bows wanting to bend sideways. Steve

[Kegan]

PatM- I've made 70+# whitewood D bows that were only 1 1/2" wide. I;ve enevr gotten the oppurtunity to work ipe yet. I think the main reason they didn't believe white woods could handle it is because 1) their bows were too short for the stress and 2) heat tempering the belly hadn't become as popular.

[1/2primitive]

D-bows are my favorites. I've got one which shoots very well, no hand shock, and really quiet. I have found that a lot of my shooting problems can be solved by simply not holding the bow as tight as I normally do. But then, that's something that all shooters should watch out for.
My bows, most of them being shorter, are more finicky about the way I shoot. A longer D-bow is really smooth. Most of my bows, particularly bendy handled bows, are Osage, and I can make them about 1" wide with no problems. This makes the problem of the arrow bending around the handle no more trouble than with stiff handled bows.
      Sean

[Rich Saffold]

The bow Manny has in the photo is under 1 1/8" at the grip, and I have made many "D" styles  3/4" wide at the arrow pass. This gets closer to the accuracy of the built-up grips which can be truly center-shot.. And it does allow for a little more spine variation.

Rich

[PatM]

 I don't dispute that an inch and a half is more than adequate but most people would prefer a narrower handle than that which was Tim's point I think..
 Of course there is no reason you couldn't do a super stretched out West Coast style tiller with whitewood if you want a narrower handle.
 That verges a bit from the classic D bow shape.

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

Yep Rich, just mesured the bow and it's exactly 1",..it shoots the same set of arrows that I shoot out of my 85 # HILL ( I builded up the arrow pass a bit on the Hill to make it shoot like a selfbow)