The bow I gave as an example is of sound design. Agreed?Well no, not agreed. We are talking about a flat bow. The ELB design is not relevant to this discussion and therefore not sound on that basis. (Sorry, for those who think I've taken the sentence out of context, please scroll up to see the sentence in context... and look at all the other things we've discussed as well.
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Hickory and osage are one of the best matched woods there is.Yes, I agree. But I must also mention that this combination didn't work well for Easternarcher in this case.
Your generalised statement of 'just make it wider' is not good advice.Show me where I said "Just make it wider". You didn't take that one out of context, I'll give you that. You made it up.
I don't know about you, but I pick a piece of wood(s) and then match the design to it, optimising it's best qualities.Where do you think designs come from? They come from taking the piece of wood and then shaping it so it performs well. Then the maker stands back and says, "This is a good design for this wood". Then the next guy takes the design and says, "I have some of that wood, if I choose that design I will be optimizing the wood's properties!". Then proceeds to break the bow because the wood is not exaclty the same as the first piece of wood.
(If you read that, I admire your patience).
I think we basically agree... design, material and manufacture are ALL vital. Yes, we agree on that. Drat.