width question

[Eric Garza]

That is some serious glued-in reflex on that bow Marc!

I am not a fan of bamboo as a backing, but for hickory-backed ipe bows I gravitate to 2.5-3 cm wide, which translates to 1 inch to 1-3/8 inches wide. I also round the hickory back and sand it down to under 1/8 inch thick.

[Deerhunter21]

That is some serious glued-in reflex on that bow Marc!

Honestly! thats amazing! its braced is identical to its unbraced when flipped to its other side!

[upstatenybowyer]

These are all very helpful replies guys. Can't tell ya how many times I've tried a boo backing only to end up with too much boo and not enough belly. I'm really trying to avoid that with this one. Sounds like the key is the right balance between boo thickness and width.

The thing that scares me about going too narrow is the lateral stability thing. Especially when combined with a good amount of reflex. 

[DC]

Can I stick a question in here? Take the bow that Marc posted. It looks like it could be a bear to brace with wanting to twist. Once it's braced is it still more unstable than a straight bow?

[Marc St Louis]

That was the reflex after I had tillered it out.  The bow had some very high string tension and that has a tendency to make a bow a bit unstable at brace.  Before tillering it was down right dangerous

[bassman]

The one, and only Bamboo backed Ipe bow that I made was  3 piece take down , 40 lbs. at 26 inches draw with straight limbs. It is 1 1/4 at the fades to 1/2 inch at the tips. When I first built it I shot it a lot. Now, not so much.The Bamboo back was thin so I had more Ipe than Bamboo for thickness.

[Badger]

  I will be gluing up a boo backed ipe in the morning. One method I like to use is I apply the mass principle before glue up. Ipe can be hard to push into shape on the form so I like to get it as thin as possible before glue up. I also like to leave the boo just a little thicker than normal so I can make my ipe thinner. I will be building a 67" long 50#@28". The finished mass will be 21 oz, so if my bamboo comes out at about 8 oz I will rough my stave down to about 16 oz before glue up. This leaves me a bout 3 oz for tillering, quite a lot of wood really.

[Knocker]

I made this 54 Lb IPE Bow 1" wide.  Between the narrowness and the delicate tips, it is difficult to string without it twisting.

Knocker