Primitive Archer

Feathers n Wood LLC is a small dealer I buy most of my trad archery supplies from. He has a post on his Facebook page showing some python skins a friend of his sells. Might check him out.

thanks a lot. ill go ask

Whatever you are doing it looks really good to me so far and it seems like your unbraced profile is holding its shape well.
Bjrogg

agreed, and looks like you have that knot area neither to stiff or weak which can be tricky

for a ceartain front profile, there's only one particular shape (tiller) the bow can have to spread the load evenly across the limbs, wich should minimize set.

very true. and the best approach since you are concerned with getting 40# out of a short and narrow stave.
when width and length allow, having a stiffer (lesser stressed) handle area and tips can improve performance and feel (dampness) in the hand.

So, I've tillered this bow a bit more, now it's 35# at around 19.5" of draw lenght. I tried something new to see if I'm on the right track: I've made a realistic model of my bow (for what I could) on VirtualBow and then I "tillered" the virtual version to get an even distribution of stress across the bow, maintaining the front profile and changing only the thickness of the limbs. My reasoning is that, for a ceartain front profile, there's only one particular shape (tiller) the bow can have to spread the load evenly across the limbs, wich should minimize set. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, I still consider myself a complete newbie! Here are pictures of the bow and the model from VirtualBow at the same brace height and draw lenght.

Glad to see you back and still working on this bow. I think it has real potentional to be a bow that works for you!

Yea that would work! What do you want to trade for?

I can always take snake skins!

Great weekend, Pappy.  I like the antler can opener handle.     That knife looks like a proper mountain-lion-discourager.  Wood pile looks great too.  There's nothing like a full freezer and a huge wood pile.