Help me choose type of bow for hickory stave

[beartail]

I cant decide what desine I should use for this piece of hickory. Its 70 1/2" long 2 3/8" wide and 1 1/2 thick. my draw is 28". I would like to get a heavy bow out of this. Give me some ideas yall

[JonW]

I personally think a pyramid design works good with hickory.

[wizardgoat]

It's all personal preference.  It'll probably make any style of bow you want except a narrow rounded belly longbow.  Pyramid bows are safe and easier if your new.
I'd probably make a 60" static recurve with a bit of bendy handle

[bowandarrow473]

Id just make a 64-68in flatbow that was 1 5/8in at the handle, and holding that width until the last 10in. I almost never put in reflex or recurves, I actually love bows with 1-1.5 in of set as I feel they are easier to shoot, I see no giant preformance gain in adding in recurves or reflex, sure you may get 5 or 6 more fps but I dont feel like it is worth it. The design I stated above is my go to design for just about every bow I build, I might make minor adjustments to compesate for density but that is just about my favorite design. If you want you could heat temper the belly on this bow, that will reduce set and bring the tension and compression forces more into balance.

[bubby]

Depends on how many bows you've built , I'd either do like wizardgoat of do a 60" molly curve with working limbs tapering from two inches to one inch at the lever fade

[bubby]

But an alb pyramid eastern woodland a good hickory stave will do just about anything ya want

[PEARL DRUMS]

67" ntn, 2" wide until mid limb then taper to 1/2" tips. Use a 4" grip and each fade is 2".

[beartail]

thanks for all the ideas fellas.
what would be a good thickness taper measurement for, say, a 70# bow?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Start with 5/8 at the fades, if you go with my suggestion, and floor tiller the taper in.

[Danzn Bar]

  five or six drasticly different designs suggested from very experienced bowers for a hickory stave.......and osage is king? 
DBar (standing as far back from this post as he can..)  

[Stixnstones]

I'm currently workin on one now, 64" 1-3/4 wide til mid limb than taper to 1/2" tips. Those tips will prolly end up a lil thinner, but thats the stats i've run with in the past. Good luk, go slow, have fun.

[bubby]

five or six drasticly different designs suggested from very experienced bowers for a hickory stave.......and osage is king? 
DBar (standing as far back from this post as he can..)  



What are you saying dbar, advice overload

[J05H]

I'm with Wizardgoat here. A good clean hickory stave of the dimensions you specified, should make practically anything but an elb.

[Pappy]

I really like the pyramid design on Hickory, with that draw length, depending on the weight you want, I would go 64/66 n-n 1 5/8 to 1 3/4 at the fad tapered to the tip/4 inch handle and 1 1/2 fads. I love Hickory and have built and been involved in a bunch and if it has any weakness it in compression and have found if you make them very wide and go to mid limb, the limb thickness can get really thin and any issue with the tiller will show up in frets, don't get me wrong it is a good design but you need to be prefect while tillering. Pyramid is a little safer IMO in that respect. If you decide on pearl suggestion just go very slow and be sure the limbs are bending evenly through out the tiller process. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. 
 Pappy

[blackhawk]

A good clean hickory stave of the dimensions you specified, should make practically anything but an elb.

Is this from personal experience that youve tried? Or are you just regurgitating dogma you heard told/read by some ole timers? Hickory can most certainly make a nice elb...its been done.

With that said id make an ELB!!!! 


I also just finished a 56" hickory molly curve that draws mid 50's@27" that rips a mean arra. You can do a lot with hickory if ya know what your doing. The best answer to your question is what do YOU want to build. If i look at a stave and dont know what to make of it i dont pick it up.