cherokee war bow

[Renacs]

I have a buddy who wants me to make him a cherokee warbow with a min weight of 75#. I have a long piece of black locust and a ton of osage, but all the osage is fairly short.  I've never made a b.l. Bow or any bow over 65#. My question is if i use the b.l. Ill half to do a ton of heat straighting. With that kind of draw wgt. Do u think i could weaken,the bow to much and make it unsafe.

[Renacs]

P.S. He doesnt mind if i add my own touch to it. If i use b.l. For the D bow i want to narrow the tips. How narrow do you think i could go?

[Pat B]

Locust takes to heat straightening very well and actually tempering the belly will help with the weaker compression strength. Locust was the traditional bow material for the Eastern Ban of Cherokee so a Cherokee style war bow from locust would be appropriate.
Take the tips down o 1/2". They were typically about 3/4".