White Oak backed Cherry?

[DLH]

I want to make a cherry bow and glue in some reflex. It would be 68in long and 2in wide pyramid taper to half  in tips. Would this be too narrow? I wanted to back it with ash but I don't have any with straight enough grain. Would the white oak be too strong for the cherry? Is it in between hickory and ash as a backing or more like one than the other?

[PEARL DRUMS]

Thin hickory backing would be best IMO. If you are gluing reflex in and building it that long, you could narrow it up some if you choose. Unless of course your pulling 30-31"? The wider the bow the thinner (generally speaking) it is. If you use hickory you risk the belly getting too thin and you would be forced to width tiller the bow to finish. These are just possible scenario's, nothings carved in stone with wood bows however!

[DLH]

I draw 28 and a half but i thought the hickory mgiht over power the belly. Could I just shorten it to say 66in and be safe with the 2in still or shorten it and reduce the width? How thin of hickory are you talkin like a 1/16th?

[PEARL DRUMS]

If I where building the bow for you I would make it 68" long, 10" handle section, 1 5/8 wide at most, 5/8 core and about a .100" thick back. I would glue in 4" of reflex so I could end up with about 1" after shoot in. This would get you up to around a 55-58# bow at most. These are just how I would do it, others may have varying opinions.

[DLH]

I see sounds good why  would you do 10in handle instead of 8? Where do you put most of your reflex in midlimb out or through the whole length of the limb? Sorry for all the questions about little details I just like to have a general idea and not too sure about how cherry will do with mixed results from people.

[PEARL DRUMS]

I build mine mid working limb, thats just my way of doing it. The farther out you put relfex the more the limb works. I like a longer handle because its easier to fade in that way, no other real reason. A longer riser can be more stable at times as well.