What's a good design for Boo backed Bulletwood

[Dano]

I picked a nice piece of Bulletwood and black bamboo at Mojam, and was just wondering about the width. I like 60" bows in the 50# range. Anyone have any suggestion?

[adb]

64-66" R/D, 1" handle, 1 3/8" fades, to 1/2" tips.

[tom sawyer]

I'd go 1.25" wide to midlimb, at most.  Bulletwood is dense stuff.  I made one that wide, it was longer than 60" but it made right around 50lb.  Being shorter, means you'll need even thinner limbs to make the weight.  Heck you might even get that poundage out of a 1" width.  I assume you're doing a stiff-handle design?

[Dano]

Narrower sounds good, I don't know about the handle yet, I sure like D bows. I may go with a longer bow, 62" would be good for my short draw length. Thanks guys.

[DCM]

It's pretty dense, like Lennie says.  I've only made a couple.  I would use a little more modest r/d, if you use any, than you might for something like osage.  Not sure it can take the compression load as well, ironically given it's high density.  And you can pop a boo node out as well if you work it really hard.  Try to minimize the width on the outer limb as well.  Don't take much wood to make a lot of bow.  A little longer will let you use a little more width on the inner limb, adding lateral stability, then leave the outer limbs a little narrow and stiff.

Depends upon what you want really, it can make whatever, within reason.

[Dano]

Thanks David, I was thinking less reflex for sure, so long and skinny it is.

[horseapple]

Hey Dano, have you seen the bulletwood bows that Doug Rutter was making in the past? He has a name for them that escapes me now but they are fairly narrow and are a bend thru the handle bow, heck I have one at the house and will check it out tonight for you.  P.S. they are super smooth and fast bows...

JD

[Dano]

Thanks JD, I knew I'd seen some in the past (brain phart).

[BuzAL]

I've spent the last two evenings with my buddy's 15-yr-old preparing and finally gluing one up, Dano. I was wondering kinda the same thing, but for a 28 inch draw.  Y'all with bulletwood experience think our 1 1/4 inch wide 66"er with two inches of reg'lar ol' reflex is gonna be fine for his 28" draw?  Narrower or shorter maybe?

And JD, were those reddish bellied bows on your table at MOJam bulletwood?  We were pleasantly surprised when we got inside those slats.

[Dano]

Well heck, I'll just wait to you all get R done, keep me posted bud.

[BuzAL]

No, you first. We're off it for a few days.

I'm just a bit spooked by the dimensions Rich was(is) getting with his, and this blank seems very stiff at osage dimensions.

Is your's red inside, too?

[Dano]

Heck i don't know red from green half the time, color blind ya know. Seems like 1 1/4 to 1 3/8 is the agreed width, so my plan sounds just like yours, but I've got three bows on the burner right now so it will be a while, I'll keep ya posted.

[Rich Saffold]

I'd follow JD's lead and get closer to an ELB style, a little r/d 1 1/8- 1 1/4" max width...

[Dano]

Will do, thanks Rich.