Dimension check

[Elnathan]

Hi,

I have a hickory-backed osage stave I am hoping to make into a kind of generic D-bow with a draw-weight of about 60 pounds. I am thinking of making it about 1-1/4" wide at the handle, tapering from mid-limb to about 3/4". Note sure what the thickness should be, but I was thinking of cutting at 3/4" thick and working it down from there. The stave is 72" long right now, I will probably cut it down a bit but I am not quite sure what my drawlength is ( I might want to try for a medieval-style draw to the ear, but maybe not...)

Does that sound about right to y'all?

[Newindian]

First figure out your draw length

[Elnathan]

About 29" will do, I think. That is measured to the back of the bow, not the belly.

[steve b.]

29" is a healthy draw length so I probably personally wouldn't go below 68", initially.  I overbuild my bows so 1 1/4" is getting small to me and I would be thinking my 65 lbs. goal is possibly going to be a thick bow.  Most of my flat bows  are anywhere from .4 to .7" thick when nearly complete so I would not go below one inch thick roughed out, personally.  I would shoot for 65 lbs. because I could put more time into finishing and shooting/final tillering and know I would be below weight- ~60 lbs.
So I would start out at 68 or 70" long and 1 1/2" wide and get to a point in my final tillering where I'm cleaning up the sides of my bow with sandpaper (lots) knowing that I'm now going below 1 1/2" all the while I'm watching tiller and set and all of that.    Depending on how healthy it was looking and feeling at some point I might decide to cut the length, like, 3/4" off each end. 

[Elnathan]

Hmmm. The piece of Osage is barely 1 1/2" as is, and due to the rather snakey nature of the hickory backing this is going to require some creative clamping....Would 1 3/8" work by any chance? Any suggestions for tip dimensions?

[steve b.]

Build it and find out.  Hickory and osage are heavy and so don't make the best long bows.  It might a relatively slow bow as a D-bow cuz you got a lot of wood moving but the heavier weight might make up for it.  But there's a lot of wood moving on that bow.  I'm big on waiting for serendipity to dictate my bows, maybe to a fault, and you already have a limited width to work with so you have no choice but to end up under 1 1/2".  To me that's a good thing.  So the more narrow you can make the last 10" of the limbs, the better--get the mass down.  Go narrow.