Bow from scraps (HBI)

[deadsilence]

Ended up with some scrap ipe and hickory from other projects and I was wondering if anyone had good starting dimensions for a bendy handle hickory backed ipe. My ipe is 61” long .87” wide and .70 thick. Hickory was a .120” thick backing from a failed glue job I cleaned up.

I was planing on doing a starting thickness taper from .5” at the tips to full depth 2.25” from center. Width taper was going to be full width reducing to .5” tips starting 12” from tips. I have to do that or more to safely remove a small pin not in the ipe.

Any and all suggestions welcome.

[Roy from Pa]

I never made a bendy handle bow.

Maybe someone will jump in.

Pat, Bowjunkie, Eric?

Just give it a try with your ideas.

[fujimo]

i got an armload of Ipe offcuts from a door manufacturer about 9 years ago- and for a while all i did was make HBI bows, many of them bend thru the handle.
i gave so many away- but i have one left here on the shelf, its about #60 at my draw 31.5" from the days when i still shot 60 ponders- no more i am afraid.
it measures 68" ntn 1" wide in the handle.  fades 1.5" long out to 1.25 " wide, then tapering all the way to the tips 3/8".
right at the fade  the Ipe is be about 9/16" thick, and the tips , the Ipe is 3/8" thick,
 this all had a 1/8" hickory 1/4 saw backing- so add 1/8" to those thickness measurements to get a true thickness.

the handle being a bit narrower looks to be about 5/8" thick+ the hickory of course.

hope that helps- it was my bow i took hunting in  south africa last time i went!

[fujimo]

it was a straight  bow, no reflex, flat back, flat belly

[deadsilence]

Thanks fujimo. I didn’t realize that people built bendy’s with narrower handles. Seems like I have only seen the ones with no reduction. That’s good to keep in mind though.