Scaling; will this work?

[monterey]

Ok, here's the plan!    

I have a vintage bow that I plan to re-produce to exact dimensions.  That's the easy part!

Here's the hard part.  The exact dimension repro will be a 62" one piece recurve.  But, I would also like to do a repro of the same bow in a 66" and maybe even a 68" design.

Should I increase the dimensions across the board in a percentage of the 62" bow?  IOW, increase the length of riser by XX% and the limbs by the same XX%?

[hova]

id gander a guess , and say to just make the limbs a bit longer... i suppose its your choice , but if you want actual scale , then the whole thing would need to be done...

-hov

[Pat B]

Recurves work best in shorter bow designs. Much more than 64" for a 28" draw can make your recurves less effective.

[hova]

i thought thats why he wanted to make it bigger , at least thats what i interpreted , was that he wanted a longer draw but the same bow , perhaps to give to larger friends...


-hov


amd if you were really scaling , you would probably have to end up a hair wider than they were originally...

[Pat B]

If he wanted to draw the 68" recurve to 34" or 36" it might perform well. One reason for recurving is to reduce the string angle at full draw on a short bow. I'm not telling you what to do, I'm passing on info I have read or heard from reliable sources.

[hova]

i see what youre saying , and im not going against any of that , i cant say i really thought a couple inches would change the performance that much , unless of course youre talking same thickness and whatnot...

-hov

[Pat B]

With a longer non-working center section and all of the bending going on in the outer portions of the limb(whip tillered) a longer recurve will work but what is the point of that. For target shooting a longer bow is preferred because a longer bow is more stable and forgiving than a short one. For hubting bows that extra length isn't needed and can be detrimental while hunting. I have hunted with 68" long bows and if you consider your surroundings and have plenty of clearance all around you they worked fine. I now prefer a 60" to 64" bow for the hunting style I use.

[monterey]

The purpose of the scale-up is to accomadate a shooter with a full 32" draw.  He even needs special arrows.  Arrows are the easy part.  

Most recurves are oriented to a shooter with a 28" draw.  Most FD curves I've seen for 58 inch recurves (what he shoots now) show a definite turn toward stacking at around 28" and many before 28".

Making a long bow to accomadate him is pretty easy.  I'll be making several of these recurves for myself and other family members.  Can't leave the big guy out.  You know, family and all!  

The idea of scaling the width is an interesting thought.  Gotta mull that one over.

The 68" is probably longer than need be and Pat B's advice is probably applicable there.  Am thinking more and more of a 66"

How about increasing scale of all lengths, riser and limbs by the same percentage difference as the diff between a 28" (normal) and 32" (his) draw?  Jury still out on limb width.  

Any further thoughts.  I should have explained my reason for wanting to do this up front.  Would have been easier for you guys to see the problem.