question on laminating glass bows

[JamesKerr]

When you laminate the limbs and riser together is it better to put all your limb laminations on one side of the riser or to put them on both sides of the riser say two on each side

[ChristopherO]

On either side of the riser.  This is why a sloping fade is important and that the tips of the fades need to be extremely thin to allow the lams to blend together without a noticable glue joint.

[Dick in Seattle]

I generally copy my original Howard Hill bow (his own), which has all of the lams forward of the riser.  Only the belly glass goes up the fades.  He felt that the stack worked better together than split.  I do split it in two situations... if the belly lams have fantastic grain I want showing rather than hidden, or if the weight goes over 50 pounds, in which case I will put at least one lam on the belly.  Fortunately, I rarely build that high a weight.  Note that this is on traditional straight longbows.  What the situation would be on a recurve or RD I have no idea.

[JamesKerr]

will a riser made entirely out of one type of wood be strong enough to handle a r/d longbow pulling 55 pounds or will the riser need to be laminated with several pieces of wood

[jess stuart]

I personally have usually put them on either side of the riser, thought it made the riser look better.  Will the riser be strong enough?  Depends on the type and individual piece of wood.  I have built quite a few risers of one piece of wood, but a couple came apart.  I always try to cap the back of the riser with some glass or phenolic etc.  Better safe than sorry is my motto.  Never had one break with glass on the back.  What are you building one piece or t/d?