# of lambs needed in a recurve?

[IAOUTDOORSMAN]

I'm going to attempt to make my first recurve.  I have made several long bows with thick limbs.  For the long bows I used action boo cores.  While looking at limb thickness charts I noticed that recurves have much thinner limbs.  So thin that it would be hard to get the required thickness with a six lamb limb.  My question is: Do I use the two limb core pieces (thinking of using zebra or elm) then the two pieces of glass?  Or do I need to still use two pieces of core wood like boo, two of the nicer woods, and then the two pieces of glass?

[Mike Most]

I can start you down the path, from my experience and I am sure others will chime in with a variety of experience levels.

   

 The limb stack thickness at the fades for a 50# bow 2" wide according to Binghams catalog is .258" for a 60" recurve.

That being said there are the back and belly glass one taper and one parallel lamination in their bows. If the glass is .050" that leaves .158 for the two wood lams.     The taper is substantially thicker than the parallel.

Hope it helps

Mike

[Jason Scott]

I just finished my first recurve a month ago. I copied my 56" 44# Browning Explorer II but made my new one 58#. It has two parallels wood and two .040 glass for a total stack of .200 for the existing Browning and I made my new one .225 inches stack to get the 58#. The two parallel lams that I had to grind for the new bow were .0725 each. The limbs on the explorer were 1 5/8" wide at the fades and my bow is 1 1/2". I used vertical laminated boo under clear glass on it because it works so well with my longbows but it produces a sort of hollow boing noise that I strongly feel would not be there if I used maple or elm or something. I don't think the noise is from limb timing or tiller like a buz. Boo is better suited for longer limbs I think. It shoots great though, maybe I'm more partial to quiet longbows. Elm would be a great core wood I think and it's lighter than Zebra, hard to beat elm. My 44# Browning has maple under black glass.

[Robertfishes]

This is my first recurve that I built July of 2009 and my first deer taken with it Sept 2009. It's a 58" long 1 3/4" wide Binghams design, I used two pieces of 040 clear glass, two .025 Cocobolo parallel veneers, one .125 amberboo 002/inch taper for a total stack of .255, bow finished out at 58 lbs so I reshaped limbs (pryamid taper starting at end of fades) and ended up with 54 lbs @ 28"... This was my first build and it came out great!!  

[Robertfishes]

this is my 5th recurve build and 7th bow I finished it 3 weeks ago, just finished my 8th bow tonite.. two honduran rosewood parallels, one 002/in red elm taper and two pieces of clear glass..I have been wanting to build some bows with black glass, when I do, I may use 4 pieces of wood and 2 pieces of glass and see how it shoots..    

[jess stuart]

Most recurves have some combination of tapers and parallel lams.  I have built many over the years most have had one .002 taper and a parallel.  I have also used a.001 taper and a parallel, have also used all parallels, all will work and work well with correct design. The amount of taper mostly changes where and how much the limb bends.  Hope that helps.

[Robertfishes]

like Jess said, you can use one taper(edge grain), one parallel(edge grain) and 2 pieces of glass, I have a brown actionwood bow ready to glue up with 2 lams, it has a .120 .002/in taper, one .055 parallel,two .040 glass. I am building bows using the Bingham plans and formula, I bought their set of plans last year..I also have two 1 3/4" form blanks glued up I just have to come up with a design and thats where the real fun begins, trying to estimate stack height to make (shootable) weight..The LongBow that I'm building is also a known design, I got the template from KennyM..the stack height for a 64" 1 1/2" wide R/D bow is .360 for a 50lb @ 28" longbow..

[IAOUTDOORSMAN]

I guess what i'm asking is this.

Shooting for .250 for my design.
which option would be better, and is there an advantage or disadvantage to one over the other?

Option #1
2-clear glass .03
2-elm or zebra .03
1-boo tap .09
1-boo par .04
total .250

Option #2
2-clear glass .05
1-elm or zebra tap .09
1-elm or zebra par .06
total .250

[Jason Scott]

I like option #2 with elm.

[Swissbow]

I have a bow in work right now with option #2 and it looks like it's working just fine.

----------
Andy

[ChristopherO]

When I put together my 62" recurve last month Kenny M said the rule of thumb is to try to keep the glass at or below 25% of the thickness, if at all possible.
I used a single .002 taper and one parallel lamb with .040 glass with 1 3/4" limbs.  That was the plan but due to some issues, my impatience, the limbs finished out at 1 9/16+.  I don't remember the total stack at the fades off the top of my head but the princible concerning glass ratio was a new concept for me.

[Jason Scott]

The 20% - 25% rule of thumb is for longbows. For recurves it is around 35% - 40%. You can pretty much do what ever you want within reason and it will make a bow but the resulting speed, draw, cast etc. will differ with the different ratios.

[jess stuart]

I have always tried to use .040 glass on all my recurves, don't really why I have never used thicker glass but I haven't.  Glass is a heavier than wood so it should slow your bow down some. I don't think there are to many hard and fast rules that apply in every situation if any so you will most likely get a good bow which ever option you choose.

[pditto613]

I would go with option #2.  If you decide to use option #1 the extra glue lines will make for a heavier draw.  That being said, I have one bow that I built like robert's with one taper lam and 2 figured cherry veneers with .040 glass and shoot great.