No Tapers?

[D.A. Davis]

What would the results be if you didn't use any tapers, parallels only, in your limb laminations?

[kennym]

Hey DA,
 The tapers force  the bend out towards the tip,making the limb work thru the whole limb,varying amount depending on the rate of taper. This  (IMO) makes for a sweeter shooter.

Course,everybody builds em differently ,so you may get other opinions also!

[tim-flood]

limbs SHOULD taper towards the string nock. BUT thinner or narrower what is the difference!! you should be able to make the limb narrow and achieve similar results maybe better because twice as wide is twice as strong BUT twice as thick is 8 times as strong.  Less mass is always better near the tips

IMHO ;-)

[bjansen]

Agreed, the amount of taper in the lams plus the taper on the limbs achieve your desired tiller.  Try taking a drinking straw some time and making it into a little bow...since it is uniform the entire length (i.e. no taper) most of the bend happens in the middle and the tips are almost straight.  Eventually it will fold over in the middle as you bend it.

If you were to try a pyramid style bow you might be able to get away with zero, to near zero taper in the lams (as all the taper is side to side in the limbs).

[Mike Mecredy]

I've put out a few short recurves lately with all paralell laminations and what I've notied is there's less stacking than those that I build using tapers.  One thing of importance is to keep the laminations thin, around .050 or less.  There's less chance that way of the tips delaminating just from the core trying to spring back.  Another thing to note when you construct a recurve from all paralells is to taper the tips farther towards the fades.  Not just the last 8" or so.  

I also have an old Indian Archery, Seneca recurve, 58" 50# @ 28, and it's made with all paralells.  That bow was built before I was born.  I still shoot it alot and it's about 44 years old.

[Jason Jelinek]

You don't need tapered laminations; however, you'll need a lot of width taper.  Like 1.5" wide at the fades to 3/8" wide tips, or better yet 2" wide to 3/8" wide at the tips.  I made a number of fiberglass longbows this way and they were smooth on the draw, however they had a bit of handshock.

Putting tapered laminations into the bow will allow you to get away with a bow with narrower limbs (like 1.25" wide to 0.5" tips).