Backing an underweight skinny osage bow?

[sleek]

I made a bow of checked wood, and by time I cleaned out the checks, I had about an inch of wood left. The bow is 58 ish inches long. I'd like to get about 45#@26 from it. Is an inch too narrow for that? Would a good heat treat prior make a lasting difference? Or should I just leave it as it is and call it a kids bow?

[PatM]

It's the thickness that will govern that.

[Mafort]

For Osage I’d say an inch is fine. You can always use a thin layer of raw flax/linen and up the draw weight

[sleek]

It's the thickness that will govern that.

I guess I should specify that I want to bamboo back it and I'm worried about over stressing the belly in compression, being only an inch wide, and going to 45 at 26.

[dylanholderman]

sleek this is a little Osage bow i made at the classic a couple years ago.
40~45# @26  52"ntn and 15/16 to 1" wide for most of its length i flipped the tips slightly and its taken about 1 1/4" of set.
so yeah i think what you want is doable if you got the thickness

[Hawkdancer]

I am paying close attention!  Got one in the works that feels lonely, been set aside since I blew out my knee last spring!  Got the bamboo, still got to get the right glue/epoxy, and the moxie to go far it!  As well as getting this move settled!
Hawkdancer

[Hilongbow]

I literally just finished an osage bow today (put the last coat of oil on this morning) that is 56" long with a slightly bendy handle. At it's widest spot it is 1-1/16” but only for about 4" on each limb before narrowing to 1/2” tips. It finished at 35#@24" (so maybe 40#@26") but it could have easily been higher if I was willing to allow more set. I did a long heat treat and then bent in about 2" of reflex. After unstringing, the bottom limb holds about 1/2” or reflex and the top limb is mostly straight. It would be the same as the bottom but I got a little aggressive with the rasp during tillering and one spot midlimb got too thin and took some extra set. The limbs only come back a little after resting. It's a sweet shooting bow. Despite the low weight it throws a 420 grain arrow pretty hard.

[JNystrom]

1" is too wide! Well all the native american bows made of osage were 1" or narrower, so i think that is fine.
Last summer i made 64" osage bow, 77# @26". Bendy handle bow, 1" 1/8 wide and it took a minimal amount of set.

[Eric Krewson]

With 1" wide bamboo you can thin it to almost nothing, that is the key to not overstressing the belly of any bamboo backed bow. I have made over 50 bamboo backed bows and never had frets on the bellies of any of them, I have bamboo backed several red oak and hickory bows as well, again no frets.

[Bryce]

I’ve gone as narrow as 7/8” with some overly dense sage. Won’t know till yah give it a go.