thinning the tips

[dragonman]

Hi again everyone , hope you are all well. I just finnished TBB4, theres a lot of stuff about keeping the mass of the bow tips to the min! I always try to do this anyway, but tend to overbuild them  for safety reasons. I'm wondering what is normal, not having seen to many wood bows.. I recently made a boo backed ipe 64" n.t.n.,  with a 13" handle section (trying to get close to a centre shot , lenght ways) so fairly short limbs. at the fades it is 1 1/2" and it  tapers at 13" from the knocks to 5/8" at the string groove, I was going for flat as possible limbs.  Do any of you bowyers out their reckon those tips should be thinned down, ? I feel they are too wide, but would hate to ruin the bow, cos its a fairly good bow, I'd be gratefull for any feed back on bow tip dimensions, and how thin they can be, also on boo backed hickory?
forgot to mention, the ipe bow is 62lbs, usually my bows are between 55&60lbs

[Pat B]

How thick are your tips?  You should be able to reduce the width to 3/8" at the string groove and even less but 3/8" will work fine.

[dragonman]

pat B, the tips are 5/8" at the string groove, and 1/2" at the very tip.      3/8" at the string  groove is very thin!! willl they still be strong enough, ? there is no tip overlays?

[Badger]

Drago, 3/8 is plenty for ipe, lots of goys are going as thin as 1/8" which is pushing it. I like to use an antler overlay and cut the nock in the back of it. 3/8 should be good. Steve

[Kegan]

Even on my 75#+ whitewood longbows I never make the tips wider than 3/8" anymore. With overlays, it's hardly a problem (even without).

[Pat B]

Yep, 3/8" is plenty. Put tip overlays like Steve recommended with the string groove across the back also.   

[dragonman]

cheers guys,  I'm gonna do it and thin them down , but do you mean 3/8" at the string groove or at the very tip?  I usually cut the groove around 1" in from the tip making the tip about 1/8" thinner than at the groove,!     would 3/8" at the groove be ok and 1/4" at the tip???  for a 60lb bow,  I'm a bit nervous to go too far.

thanks,    David , AKA  dragonman

[Pappy]

3/8 at the grooves will be fine and as thin as you want passed,that dose nothing anyway.
   Pappy

[George Tsoukalas]

LOL. Normal? There's nothing normal about what we do! Jawge

[Kegan]

I recently got a white oak semi-ELB shooting at 70#, it's nocks are 5/16" where the string sits. No problems yet .

[Hillbilly]

Some of the guys on here like Sawfiler and Ryano make killer osage bows with tips that are not much bigger than a pencil. All the weight you can get off the tips is usually good with a heavy, hard wood like osage or ipe.

[dragonman]

thanks for the imput, much appreciated

[FlintWalker]

I usually make mine about 3/16-1/4" wide where the string sits.  That's pushing it, but on a bow in the 50 pound range, it's enough.  For a heavier bow I would go up to about 5/16" between the string grooves. 
 For someone wanting to play it safe, I would recommend at least 1/4", but anything over 3/8" is overkill.
  You can go ultra narrow as long as the tip has some depth.
  Here's one on a 48# bow that's about 1/8" between the grooves.  Saw Filer

[attachment deleted by admin]

[dragonman]

Wow, Saw Filer, thats thin !!! the thinnest I've seen , I should be ok with 3/8 then!  thanks for the pic

[armymedic.2]

wow, that makes me ashamed to say how heavy my tips are, lol.  nice job SF