Lam Thickness for Narrow Limb Bow ?

[muskiedaze]

I've fallen shot of my intended draw weight more times than I care to admit. My friends started calling me "The King of the Girly Bow" which is starting to affect my self esteem and confidence in my bowcrafting skills. I'm trying to  make a narrow limb, short riser recurve with long recurve tips, somewhere around 55-60 lbs. (O.K., It's a knockoff of a 60" Widow PSR). I've tried osage. walnut and maple lams up to .090-.030 for the tapers(belly side) and .060 for the parallels. I  added a .030 maple core lam to the walnut and a .030 coretuff glass lam to the osage. I used .040 back and face glass for one bow and .050 glass for the next 2. The limbs taper from 1 3/4 to 5/8's with a parabolic curve to the tip. I can't bend a thicker belly lam because of the tight radius bend at the handle, and would prefer not to add additional laminations if possible, because people who know how to make bows don't have to. Maybe I should just start weaving baskets from all these nice lams I have cluttering up my shop.  What to do, what to do?    

John

[str8sh2ter]

i take it ,you're kidding about the self esteem issue.
  Anyways,i'd say just order thicker lams next time.I just learning this stuff.I ordered a total of .390[.040 X2,.095 X2,.120X1] for a 66" longbow ,shooting for 45-50#.It's only 1 1/2" wide.
 I'm sure someone on here can get you in the ballpark  for your application.you might also have to consider a reverse taper in there to the fade area.
Do more research before next try.These guys here are more than willing to help .

[kennym]

I'm a longbow type of guy,but Binghams has a chart for recurves. Don't know if any match your requirements,but take a look here...

 http://www.binghamprojects.com/drawweight.htm