Making new glass bows, where to start?

[kiltedcelt]

I've made numerous board bows and some boo backed ipe r/d bows up to this point. I'm wanting to make a couple glass bows for my wife and myself, primarily to have something durable and bomb-proof. Don't get me wrong, my wood bows have been good shooters but our two go-to bows right now are the bbi r/d bows and mine lifted some splinters on the boo a while back. I put a serving thread patch over that area and it's been okay but I just don't feel comfortable with that. On top of that, that's our only two decent bows. My other bows that I've made for us have some flaws. They're good bows but not our favorites to shoot. We really liked the r/d design and the bbi bows really looked good.

What I'm wanting to do now is make us a couple glass bows which I feel will be far more durable and the woodworker in me really loves a well made bow with a really attractive riser and limbs. You can do so much with a glass bow that you can't do with a plain old stave or board bow. Stave bows and board bows have their own beauty but I really want to make something that looks like a piece of functional art.

Until now I've experimented with glass bows trying to make Turkish/Mongol style bows with limited success. The two bows I'd like to make I would prefer to do clear glass and they would be long bows. Of course I'll need to make a whole new form but that's no problem. Let me add something else as well. We're not great archers. We've only been into archery for the last probably two years and only target archery, not hunting. I'd like my bow to be at least 45#, my wife's bow can be up to 30-35#. I'm torn between doing more r/d bows or something far more simple like a straight up slightly reflexed design like a Hill-style bow.

I know some guys might jump to suggest the Bingham's designs, but luckily I don't need to go there. I live in Chicago and up in Waukegan is Old Master Crafters - the guy who grinds lams for companies like Bear. I've dealt with John at OMC getting stuff for my other experiments in the past and he stocks and can make just about anything, so I prefer to go through him. I'm just wondering at this point what is likely to be the easiest shooting, easiest to make bow design. I want these to be our go-to bows that we can shoot heavily to hone our skills. At some later point I can examine building some other things like some recurves or whatever. Just wondering what you guys think would be good designs for a starter project like this.

[Chad Orde]

Ask John at OMC what he suggests, he has blue prints for his crafter reflex deflex long bows which are sweet shooters and he can show you the press you need to make them even!

[kiltedcelt]

d-i-y bowhunter - I just got off of the phone with John and he thinks for what we want his plans for hybrid longbows will be the sweetest shooting for our needs. He said his hybrid has lower handshock than his reflex deflex design although he did say that at the poundages we want it really wouldn't be much of an issue anyway. He's going to be building up a hybrid bow for another customer and he invited me to come up and watch him put it together and even help him out with it. He's going to call me later this week or next and we'll work something out. In addition, I'll be able to get a look at all the lamination options and choices while I'm there. I've been to his shop before but I've always just bought real basic stuff and never really looked at what sort of stuff he can do exotic lams and such. Sounds like I answered all my own questions and and with John helping out I should be able to make us a couple of really nice bows.