first all wood hybrid longbow tiller question

[aric]

I just glued up and cut out my first all wood hybrid long bow. I used hickory for the back and belly and maple for the core with a red oak riser. Well she came out of the form a little thick in the limbs. she is sitting at about 7/16ths thick. This bow was made with all parellels that i cut on my band saw. It is very heavy even on a long string tiller i was wondering if you guys have any advise on the best way to tiller this bow. The bows thickness is about one and a half inches at the fades and tapers to roughly 7/16 at the tips maybe slightly thinner. thanks for any input you guys might have.

[Art B]

Do you have the limbs dressed up and rounded? Trapping the back will help reduce some weight. What weight are you looking for. How 'bout bow length? Do you mean 1 1/2" wide (you said thickness) at thee fades? How much reflex? Art

[aric]

yeah i slightly rounded the limbs and sanded the belly some. i am hoping to come in around 50 to 60 pounds. yeah art i meant wide sorry. The bow lenght is 62 in. i would have to measure reflex and deflex. i forgot exactly what it is. I used a form that was built from a bingham design for hybrid r/d longbow.

[Art B]

With 7/16" thick limbs, that sounds close to what you're after. I think the early weight of these type bows may be fooling you somewhat. Have you tried pulling your bow down to at least brace height and leaving for about half hour. That would help drop some inital weight. Have an even tiller at this point........Art

[aric]

Art i did think about leaving it on the tree at roughly brace height. I was just a little scared to even try to get a short string on her yet. i will have to get on my other compiter and try to get some pics up here soon.

[AKmud]

Watch your belly carefully, hickory doesn't compress well and will chrysal on you (spoken from experience...).

[aric]

You know i thought i probably should have used maple on the belly. luckily i have enough wood and glue to make one more.

[aric]

well i broke this one last night. she made it to 22 inches draw. oh well still had fun and learned some things along the way. on to number six.

[okie64]

What was the cause for the break? Maple is no better on the belly than hickory in my opinion. Hickory will make a fine belly wood if you tiller it slowly and evenly and keep it wide enough. I've built around 30 bows from hickory and the only one that fretted on the belly was my fault( too narrow and too much bend close to the fades).

[aric]

Im not sure what the exact cause of the break was. But she broke about three inches past the fade. i think somehow i overpowered the back. The reason i say that is because i raised a few splinters on the back. Maybe my core laminations where too thick. I was able to go in and fix those splinters pretty well. The belly held up very nice so im not sure.

[aric]

Maybe i rushed it  a little