Looking for suggestions on white oak and yellow heart

[IowaHedge]

The white oak is quater sawn (currently 1/2" thick) and the yellow heart is fairly clean straight grained (1" thick -6" wide)). Shooting for 40-50 pounds @ 28".  Thinking of glueing in some mild reflex . Not set on ntn length but thinking 64". Wondering if 1/8" backing and 1/2" belly will get me close or not with reflex. Going to clamp the handle area flat and block ends up 3-4" during glue up.  Also once belly thickness is roughly figured going to taper or flatten to floor tiller before glue up. Would like a non bendy handle but still in the early figuring on design. What kind of profile should i try first for limbs? 4" handle 1 1/2" to fades for handle. 1 1/2" at fades to 1/2" tips for limb profile. I can go thicker on limbs or change anything I've said. Nothing is set yet. Just looking for ideas. Havent put the boards to the bandsaw yet.
   Thanks for any help/input.

[Pat B]

I've never used yellowheart but your dimensions should get you 40# to 50# easily. 1/8" white oak backing should be fine for the backing.
 I'd go with a 4" handle, 2" fades then 1 1/2" out 6" to 8" before tapering to 1/2" tips(for now, reduce tips to 3/8" later).
 I prefer to start out with thicker belly and reduce as needed while tillering, starting at 3/4" to 5/8" thick.

[IowaHedge]

Thanks for the reply Pat B.  Was leaning towards a thicker belly to start with to see how well the yellow heart works.  Gonna go with 5/8" belly.

[arachnid]

Do make sure your white oak backing has perfectly straight grain. I had my share of exploding bows due to bad grain choice in white oak.

[BMorv]

A few months ago I made a bamboo backed yellow heart flatbow 67" ntn 57 lbs @ 29".  It's about 1/2" thick right out from the fades, so I think 5/8" would be a good starting point.  Yellow heart is pretty strong wood when compared to American white woods.  My bow is less than 1.5" wide at the fads.  You may want to go a little wider than 1.5" since you are shorter, and you are adding some reflex.    
Yellow heart is nice to work with IMO.  Enjoy

[mikkekeswick]

Pau am is a fantastic belly wood. Highly elastic and able to take a lot of compression. White oak is a great backing wood but as with any other backing check the grain. check all four sides not the quarter sawn face. Quarter sawn boards are hard to read correctly.

[IowaHedge]

Thanks everyone for the replys. Once i get it glued up and start tillering. Im sure all have some more questiond

[ty_in_ND]

Hey Iowa!  Not sure if you've started on your project yet, but if you do a Google search of "backed yellowheart Marc St. Louis", you'll find some pretty sweet 64" longbows with a decent reflex/deflex design on other archery forums.  

He doesn't say the specifics of his dimensions, but by eyeballing and by going off of the dimensions he does give (like the ttt and how wide the wood is at the fades), you can make a decent rough estimate of the other dimensions.  Some of his dimensions might be narrower than recommended (for example, he has a bamboo backed yellow heart bow that's 57# @ 28" and 64" ttt that's 1 1/4" at the fades), but he's also a master bowyer who can get the wood bending properly and efficiently.  

Just another source for you to take a look at for inspiration/ideas!  Good luck and keep us posted!!

[BMorv]

ty, Thanks for the post.  I've seen that post before of Marc's 64" R/D yellow heart bow, but I didn't catch that he put those bends in there via heat.  Inspiration for my next bow! I just have to remember to add about a half inch of width to accommodate our different skill levels.

[IowaHedge]

Yup will certainly be starting a little wider on the limbs and thicker in the belly till I get a couple made. Thanks again for the all the replys