How important are tapered laminations?

[tsriberio]

The title pretty much sums it up...

I have a whole heap of parallel hickory laminations that were gifted to me by a friend. If I can get away with just buying fiberglass and riser material for awhile that would be great.

Are parallel limbs fine for bow building? I imagine some designs work and some don't. If so, please give me some clues!

Thanks in advance.

[Flem]

I have not done an all parallel laminated bow. I would think a "widebow" (flatbow) with pyramid shaped limbs would have the least amount of kick.

[kennym]

My thought on it is you have to have some taper in the limbs for it to bend properly.  Like Flem said, if the bow is wide enough, you could have the taper on the edges of limbs. You will notice the narrow longbows have much more taper than say a recurve with 1.75" wide limbs. Some guys put as much as .006" per inch in them.

My Fhlb has .001 taper and could maybe be built parallel. Haven't tried that yet... 

[tsriberio]

My thought on it is you have to have some taper in the limbs for it to bend properly.  Like Flem said, if the bow is wide enough, you could have the taper on the edges of limbs. You will notice the narrow longbows have much more taper than say a recurve with 1.75" wide limbs. Some guys put as much as .006" per inch in them.

My Fhlb has .001 taper and could maybe be built parallel. Haven't tried that yet... 

So, I imagine that a bow could achieve proper bending by tapering the limb width as opposed to back-belly width, but that with narrow longbows lack the starting width to achieve a fast enough limb-width taper rate? Is that what you are getting at?

[kennym]

Yup

[Crooked Stic]

Parallel will work. The limb will bend more even all the way thru. Most of us use some tapers. I guess is is how you want your limb to bend. But if you want use your stuff as is they will work. Prolly get by with more narrow tips.

[ztontonz]

What design of bow do you want to build ?

I did my first D/R bow with all parallel lamination. It was pretty smooth and fast, but I really hated the hand shock!
Like said above working with width taper might be a good way to go.

Just my two cents...

[Forwardhandle]

If you do Kennys FHLB you could just order a Super lam from him in conjunction with your parallels the Super lam comes with a .001 taper you would be good to go with the original design it probably would be less guess work sense the stack formulas have all ready been worked out !

[Bowjunkie]

I vary the taper depending on other design specs, but would never build a bow with all parallel lams.

Another option for you is to send your lams out to be ground to the exact thickness and taper you want. I did that for a bunch of bows until I got set up to do it myself.

[Crooked Stic]

I vary the taper depending on other design specs, but would never build a bow with all parallel lams.

I am curious why you would never build a bow with all parallel lams.

[kennym]

I vary the taper depending on other design specs, but would never build a bow with all parallel lams.

I am curious why you would never build a bow with all parallel lams.

Mostly because I don't like wide limbs and/or hingey bows...

[Buemaker]

Kirk says that in a very light weight recurve all parallel or just .001 taper is advisable. It is good for vertical, sidewise stability.
He has made many over the years.

[tsriberio]

Kirk says that in a very light weight recurve all parallel or just .001 taper is advisable. It is good for vertical, sidewise stability.
He has made many over the years.

I am guessing that by "lightweight" you mean draw weight?

[Buemaker]

Yes, draw weight

[Crooked Stic]

I have made several recurves with all parallel lams. You can use two tapers and reverse one =parallel. Binghams pronounced longbow is parallel by use a reversed taper. Built a few of them years ago with normal limb width. I can figure how all parallel could be more apt to hinge??

[tsriberio]

I have made several recurves with all parallel lams. You can use two tapers and reverse one =parallel. Binghams pronounced longbow is parallel by use a reversed taper. Built a few of them years ago with normal limb width. I can figure how all parallel could be more apt to hinge??

Yeah, I definitely don't argue Kenny's expertise, but I am having a hard time conceptualizing a hinge in a bow that should be bending evenly due to same limb thickness.

I could definitely see how it wouldn't tiller quite right to a R/D design, where you want the outer parts to flex more than the inner. But I would think a straight limbed bow would hold a decent circular tiller. Now I know circular tiller isn't the most efficient design but I would think it would work 

[kennym]

Sorry I should have said in my bows which are more deflexed and reflexed than some !

[tsriberio]

I vary the taper depending on other design specs, but would never build a bow with all parallel lams.

Another option for you is to send your lams out to be ground to the exact thickness and taper you want. I did that for a bunch of bows until I got set up to do it myself.

Living in Alaska I am not afforded this luxury, would be cheaper to just order new lams. My only luck would be to find someone in town with a drum sander.... but even then the butt thickness on most of my lams is too thin.

Living in the greatest state for an outdoorsman has it's drawbacks, but I would gladly pay them twice again.

[jess stuart]

Bows with all parallels were once much more comman than today.  If you like very narrow limbs, less forward taper is desirable.  One can keep the back to belly thickness thicker in the recurve section of the limb using parallels.  You can increase side taper using less forward taper, often times saving some mass.
Assenhiemer bows used all parallels and they were and are still very highly regarded.  I feel depending upon the design either tapers or paralles will work just fine.
I used to use .003 in my recurves but now mostly .0015 or .001 total taper.

[Flem]

Groundhog Day!

"Here is another option, if you have lots of time and patience. It's a shooting board/sled I made for truing up lams. If you mic homemade or store bought lams, you will probably find they are slightly inconsistent in taper rate. Not a big deal unless you are OCD like me.
It's a simple MDF box with angled runners along the side that correspond to the taper rate. I use it with a sanding block or low angle plane that rides on the runners. The bed is 3/4 MDF with sandpaper glued on. The thickness gets adjusted by shimming under the bed. I use it after I have ground my tapered lams, but you could use it with parallel strips to get your taper. It's not fast, but it's dead on accurate."

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