brace hight

[anasazi]

What would be a good brace hight for a shortie it is 48 or 49 in ntn i am hoping for 60# at 20 in is that even a possibility? I am ok with a draw wt in the 50s but figure if i shoot for 60# i have some room to get things right.

[George Tsoukalas]

That sounds good. How wide is it? Jawge

[missilemaster]

I'd just brace it high enough to keep the fletchings off the handle.

[anasazi]

It is 2" wide to about mid limb then fades to 1/2" at the tips the wood is tree of heaven

[TRACY]

I'd just brace it high enough to keep the fletchings off the handle.

Exactly!



Tracy

[beetlebailey1977]

I always try to brace as low as possible while keeping the feathers clear of the bow.  Usually around 5 1/2" to 6 1/2" or so.

[lostarrow]

You might be aiming kind of high for the weight on this one if you are making it out of tree of heaven .I haven't worked my staves yet , but the wood is fairly light . Looking forward to seeing the results ,as I have a few in my own pile. My suspicion is it will take alot of set and will be prone to crysal before the back fails. Best of luck,and I'll be watching for future posts.
 

[Hunter Van Winkle]

Fistmele - thumbs up with the base of your hand lined up with the back of the bow, the thumb just touching the string (i.e. 5-6 inches or just enough to clear your fletching )

[anasazi]

Would i have better luck reducing set and avoiding crysiling if i backed it with sinue i am shooting for the 60# but since this will probably be my first bow completely finished ( i have a plum flat bow i still have to bend straight enough that i can tiller it) i expect i will do something to screw it up and would be happy with and as i get closer will probably shoot for 50 or 55#.i dont think i can draw 60#.




Another dumb question what is crysaling?

[lostarrow]

Crysaling is the crushing of the belly fibres . It will happen if the design overstrains the properties of the wood's limitations or if you make one area in the bending portion too thin (hinge). If the back of the bow is too strong in tension ,relative to  the compression  that the belly can withstand, the bow will fail. Usually not dramatically with a big boom, it just sort of craps out in a lazy  "I'd rather not be a bow anymore ,despite your efforts to the contrary! " sort of way.Sinew would only make the problem worse ,as it increases tension on the back.My suggestion would be ,practice making a lighter bow from the  Tree of Heaven,and make your "heavy" from the Plum. Just a thought.Good luck!
Dave.

[half eye]

I've noticed that in most of the photographs that exist of NA bows being held or drawn they are all pretty low braced, especially the double curves (gullwings). Sometime ago I went and measured the string height on all my short bows. These were all shot-in and shooting good. Everyone of them came out about 1" of height to 10 inches of bow....[ex] 52" bow was just below 5.25" of brace height (to shoot it's best)
    All my arrows are fletched eastern woodland 3 fletch and the feathers are long, so none of my fletch clears any of my short bows. Just my personal experience, sure dont make it right.
rich

[Del the cat]

I'm with Halfeye...
IMO
The feathers clearing the bow is a red herring as they won't touch it once you start to draw and are going to go right past the bow when you loose the arrow anyhow!
I haven't made a real shortie yet so I can't really answer , but I generally start low and increase the brace height and/or adust the arrow pass to avoid slapping my wrist and give a good arrow flight.
Del

[Buckeye Guy]

I am with you Rich !
I don't normally do shorties but I think you are on to something !
I understand why folks say longer than the feathers ,noise,inconvenience ,messed up feathers, string slap,ECT !
But I like eastern two Fletch with soft feathers so most of those disappear and my feathers just get a little scrunched no problem ! But I do most things wrong according to the pros so don't take any advise from me !!
As for the tree of heaven I just don't know so go for it and let us all know how it fairs !
Have fun !!
Guy

[bubby]

tree 'o heaven has the same properties as red oak basically, but i think rich has your question answerred, Bub

[lostarrow]

Have a couple staves of Tree of Heaven that I've been itching to try out.Your post got me curious so I tillered out a bow that's been roughed out for about 6 months now . Nice and dry. Tillered out on the long string ,heat treated and recurved lightly at the tips .3-4" diameter tree.Only 4-5 growthrings .Shorter stave ,so I decided to make it bend through the handle .It was tillered out to brace height  so I grabbed a string to put on it. Tried to brace it using a stringer to be extra safe.It cracked in the most pathetic fashion I've yet to witness.Straight across the limb with only a fraction of an inch of grain that was actually frayed.It was like breaking a piece of sponge toffee. I took some pics and will post when I can. looking at the grain from the end you can see how ridiculously large the pores are . IMHO you can make a bow out of it but probably not a practical one. I think it would have to be very light weight or preposterous dimensions to survive.I'm not sure where the comparison to Red Oak comes from Bubby as it lacked the strength  and worked more like a piece of soft maple. The density was more like pine  and the wood was kind of soft and stringy when you planed or scraped it.I would be interrested to see if your staves are different, Anasazi. good luck.