looking for advice on hickory

[dragonman]

A friend just gave me some hickory that he already cut for a hickory backed hickory bow, but he gave up on the idea and gave it to me. One piece is 68"long by 1 1/4" wide and 7/16" deep. Then there is a 1/8"x! 1 1/4" backing strip. I dont like weak bows personally (under 50lbs), so my question is will this make a decent perry reflex style bow? and if so how much reflex to put in it.  I'm asking because it looks to narrow to me and I dont want to waste too much time on it. Thanks in advance

[Pat B]

I would cut it all into backing strips. 1 1/4" is a bit narrow for a hickory bow but fine for backing strips for osage and quite a few other woods. 1/8" is all the thickness you'll need for backing strips.   Three inches of reflex is a good starting place. Generally if you try to get more you end up over stressing the belly and you loose most of what you put in. With 3" of Perry reflex you should end up with 1" of reflex or a flat profile.
  Hickory backed hickory is a good combo if you live in a dry climate.

[dragonman]

Thanks Pat for the quick response, Thats enough to confirm my suspicions,  backing strips sounds like a good idea to me and here is anything but a dry climate!!