Help with bow layout please

[Red Dwarf]

I have a piece of a hickory board that I would like to turn into a bow along the lines of the pecan Mojam test bow described on page 122 in TBB 4.
The specs. that I would be looking for would be 44# to 45# @ 26"; 64" ntn.. I have never attempted a bow of this shape and I would appreciate some suggestions on dimensions for the layout.

Many thanks


Red Dwarf

[Pat B]

You can't build a 76" bow with a 66" stave.  You could copy the outlines of that bow and reduce some of the non bending handle area to working limb but you are changing the physics of the original.
   Read Steve Gardner's(Badger here on PA) chapter in the same issue of TBBIV; The Mass Principal" pg 91.  That will get you close to what you are trying to achieve.

[Red Dwarf]

Maybe I should have described what I would like to attempt as a "scaled down version" of that bow.

Where about on the limb would you have your widest point, and how does 1 1/2" sound for max width?

One thing I do know though is that you can't get a gallon of milk in a pint pot.

Red Dwarf

[Pat B]

The longer you make a hickory bow the narrower it can be. 1 3/4" is the width I like my hickory bows at the fades and out 4" to 6" before tapering to the tips. You could make it 1 1/2" at the fades and 1 1/4" at 3/4 out the limb then taper to Holmegaard type tips. I don't thing you can scale the bow in TBBIV down to 66" and still get the same effects.
   On my Massey Medicine Bow copy I made the widest point about 8" from the center of the handle. This is the ALB style of placing the handle. Two inches out from either side of the center of the bow for the handle then 6" fades to the widest point on the limb then a straight taper to the tips.

[Red Dwarf]

Thanks for the input Pat; I'll see what I can come up with.
I like the idea of coming up with a basic layout and then following your suggestion and letting Badger's mass formula modify things as I proceed.

Red Dwarf