recurve limb width??

[md126]

how narrow can the width on a recurve riser be??  i started at 1 3/4" w/ the binghams plans but my riser block ended up just over 1 1/2".

can i still use this riser for a recurve? (i tried a longbow but the limb pad angle is too high) approx. how much #'s would be lost by narrowing the limbs?

thanks,   mike

[bjansen]

The old rule is decrease the limb width by half and poundage will be reduced by half......therefore, if you decrease your width by 0.250" or 14% your pundage should reduce by 14%.  

Is this a take down or a one piece.

[Robertfishes]

Mike, I damaged the edge (glass) of a 58" binghams one piece bow right out of the form.....I edge sanded it down to 1 9/16" and completed the build, no problems, the bow shoots great! I only lost 5 or 6  pounds of draw weight which was a blessing because The bow would have come out heavy!
what I'm thinking is if you "glue" a thin piece of soft wood to each side of riser to build it out(shim?) to 1 3/4" so you can center riser on form.. and add a little more thickness to your stack( like bjansen said) you can salvage this riser. Of course you will be grinding the "soft wood shims", core and glass back down to the 1 1/2 plus" riser width. I hope I expressed my thought clearly

[Robertfishes]

Mike, only glue small shims where your washers are on your form. The washers that hold your riser block and lams centered on form..you might not have to glue them..just wedge them in between washers and riser block during glue up??

[Robertfishes]

Mike, I assumed you were building a one piece recurve..I just saw your other post about building a Take Down..I have owned several 1 1/2" wide takedown recurves, I am boxing up a RER XR takedown recurve tonite that is 1 7/16 wide at the butt end of limbs, it's going to a fellow Trad Gang member later this week. Good luck with your build.

[md126]

thanks everyone for all the info    

yes, the bow is a T/D and i am glad it looks like i can salvage it because i really like the way the riser looks and feels

thanks again!     mike