fade length (have I made a mistake?)

[Bowjunkie]

Yes, feather the fade out onto the limb, about 2" past the flares. It will flex a little bit out near the fadeout, but less as it gets nearer the flares, then probably not at all in the narrowed portion(arrow pass) since it will be thick at that point. The fadeout is what slows and then stops the bending.

One way to keep such a glue joint from seperating is to create perfect mating surfaces, then roughen them (I use a toothing plane blade), then use a glue with gap filling properties... I use Smooth On. I NEVER have handles 'pop off'... and sometimes I really push it too... like on short bows with short dips and short flares... so as to maximize working limb area.

It also helps to stretch things out... making the fades long and low... and 'flow' nicely into the handle... no abrupt changes... sometimes it'll be hard to tell where one 'part' stops and another starts.

[Bowjunkie]

Here's one on a bamboo backed osage recurve... Core is a little less than 1/2" thick, with a 1 1/4" thick piece added on to build up the handle and dips.

 

Here's another along the same lines... a 58" d/r bamboo backed osage. These bows are 60# @ 28". On both of them, the dips blend into working limb thickness 2" past the flares.

 

[DaveMac]

Thanks for all of the advice. I have cut the handle off and planed the bow flat so the whole thing is 1/2" thick and have    shaped a 13" piece of ash to act as the handle and fades. I was wondering about how I should proceed from there? Should I uniformly thin out the limbs to start the fade in the limb wood, or should I just keep the thickness and try to tiller the bend away from the handle area?

[macbow]

Once you have the new handle with fade glued on.
You would tiller as needed treating the thing as one piece of wood.
If your 1/2 inch now I would think the limbs would get down to 3/8 or less and tapering to the 1/2 inch at the fades. Making a smooth transition.