kids bow advice

[Prarie Bowyer]

My 6 year old is pesterin me for a bow. 

I'm just about out of bamboo  for backing but could salvage soem from dead bows.  She wants it dyed pink and purple and all kinds of girly colors and loves the Brave move. And that dad makes bows and arrows ... "awe gosh wehre is my bow dad".

I'm thinking of making a maple backed bow.  I have maple in flitch form. So maple backed maple.  or maple backed oak?  I'd need to splice the latter but i'm ok with that.

I'm thinking something simple with some flippy tips but not deeply so.  maybee 18lbs?  or is that too much for about a 6yr old girl?

[Bryce]

I do 20#@20" for most kids bows. She will be drawing lower weight right now, but she will grow and so will her draw weight and length. Once she can pull the full 20# she'll be old enough for a stronger bow.

[SLIMBOB]

The last 3 I made, 2 pulled around 20lbs at 20 inches.  These 2 smaller ones I tillered out to something around 24 inch draw, both for 7 year olds.  The other was for a 13 year old, and I tillered it to around 40 lbs at 26 inches (somewhere there abouts from memory).  Longer than he can pull it.  All three give the young shooter a little room to grow into a longer pull and a higher draw weight to boot.

[John D]

+1 on the 20#@20" 

Also, if she's like my 7 yr old daughter, she's growing faster than you can buy clothes.  You'll be building another next year, so keep it simple in design and focus on making it "pretty."  Flip the tips so it looks like the bow from the movie, then go over the top (in your opinion) on the girly decoration and you'll have one happy little girl.  Don't forget to get you some pink-barred fletchings too! 

I built one for a friend's daughter last Christmas and I faked the carvings (from the movie) by printing celtic knotwork on tracing paper and using titebond III to apply it to the back.  It would have been easier to paint it on

John

Boise