61" longbow

[DesertFox]

I have a 61" piece of hickory (full dimensions are 1x1.75x61). The grain isn't perfect, but it's not terrible either. I was wondering if 61" is too short for an archer who pulls a 28" draw.

I would like to have an 8" riser on it with an arrow shelf, but if a bending handle would work better, I'll do that instead. Also, I'm starting the side tapers 15" from the tips into 1/2" tips. (I hope that made sense)

ANY input is appreciated. Even your own personal ideas of what you would do with that piece of lumber.

[walkabout]

i have built a 61" overall 60"ntn red oak bend through handle and it draws fine for me, my normal draw is 28 but ive tested it to 27" and it pulls 50# at that length. cracked a little halfway through tillering and i saturated it with superglue and wrapped the area and it turned out fine, id suggest something similar with the hickory to take advantage of more working limb to keep it from cracking. layers of leather built up on the back and belly can make for a decent shaped handle if you plan it out and take your time, mine took me about a day total shaping and stuff but im really happy with it. turned out to be one of my favorite bows. you could even flip the tips a little to help with finger pinch and stacking. just my 2 cents but i dont think youd be disapointed with the results. keep us posted with what you decide to do, and post some pics if possible.

[Rain Man]

Going by what the experts say... if your tiller is perfect, you can successfully make a bend-through-handle bow that's twice as long as your draw length.  For 28" draw, that's 56" total length.  BUT if you put on that 8" handle, subtract that from your 61" bow blank and that makes 53" of total working limbs = your bow will fail.

I made a 62" tip to tip (60" nock to nock) already and I have a 28" draw.  You should be fine if you trash the riser.

[DesertFox]

Originally posted by Rain Man:
You should be fine if you trash the riser.

So shall it be!

Heh, besides, I haven't made a bending handle bow yet.

[walkabout]

theyre definitly a little diferent to shoot but with the right arrow can be gems. either use an arrow thats a little longer or spine it 10 lbs under or so and it should shoot fine. mine hits pretty hard for being crude as it is, and with a 35# spined arrow shoots right where i look.

[Silent Bear]

I would recurve the tips and keep them stiff too keep the string angle down and you should be able to get 28 inch draw out of your bow fairly easily

[DesertFox]

Originally posted by Silent Bear:
I would recurve the tips

Exactly what I plan to do. I already added some bend to one tip actually. It seems to be undoing itself though. I steamed the tip for 30 minutes and bent it around a form. I removed it after it was cool to the touch. Should I steam longer? Let it sit longer?

[Andrew Wesley]

when steaming a bow you should leave it in the form for a while to let it dry out a bit.

you considered backing it with sinew or rawhide? with a short bow a good backing can help a lot.

[DesertFox]

Originally posted by Andrew Wesley:
when steaming a bow you should leave it in the form for a while to let it dry out a bit.

you considered backing it with sinew or rawhide? with a short bow a good backing can help a lot.

I'll leave the next tip on a bit longer, but not too much. I don't want it to end up with two mis-matched bends... If I could re-bend the other side, I would. But from what I understand, I can't.

I don't have any way of getting sinew/hide. I mean, if I have to worry about having to spend $20 a week on gas, I must not have much money.  :p  Otherwise, yes, I would probably try a sinew backing. Actually, I may have a source for bamboo soon (a friend owns property with some growing invasively) so I might try that on a future bow.

[Silent Bear]

From my experience anything over 50 inches is not really worth the extra time sinew backing unless its highly reflexed, you are safe bending the other end usually 2-3 times at the most is fine, if the tips are going to be static which means non bending then in reality it doesent really matter how many times you steam them because they will not be bending

[walkabout]

if the grain is good and a clean stave you shouldnt really need to back it, although you could add a thin strip of wood onto the tips to help reinforce the reflex. i thought about reflexing my short bow to help with stack and finger pinch but really it doesnt have much finger pinch at all and the string angle isnt bad at full draw so stacking is minimal if even there at all. i know i certainly dont notice any.

[DesertFox]

Is it absolutely necessary to reinforce static recurve tips? Mine are around a quarter inch thick (back to belly) and a half inch wide, maybe less at the very end of the tip.

Maybe to reinforce the tips I could tiller for stiff tips.

[walkabout]

nah its not  necessary, just a thought if you cant get the steam bend to stick. i make my limb tips about 3/8" thick for roughly 5 inches and then thin to 3/8 inch wide later to reduce hand shock and it helps speed a little bit i think too.1/4 inch thick tips sounds thin to me but maybe its just thin from what i know, and maybe  someone more experienced will tell you diferent.my experience with the static recurve tips is limited, i just started doing it on kids bows because theyre easy to make and cheap, make good test bows, i glued a tapered 6" section of wood about 1/8" thick at the thick end to the tips and clamped a curve into them while gluing, turned out pretty well. havent tried it full size yet but thats my project for my next short bow.

[DesertFox]

Well, from what I can tell so far in the very early tillering, this bow is going to keep it's mildly flipped up tips. I don't think it's extreme enough to be considered a true static recurve though. After set, it'll look more like a R/D I think.

Thanks for all the tips and ideas all! Pics coming in a week or so... I think  :p

[walkabout]

ill definitly be watching for updates to see how it turns out.i think if the reflexed tips bend then they probably were a bit thin, but if it turns out well then shouldnt hurt.

[George Tsoukalas]

Let the handle bend, at least. Think about backing it with silk burlap or linen. Rawhide would work very well too. Head'em up! Mov'em out! Yaaaa!    Jawge