Balancing limbs

[OldRawhide42]

Kirk  I do not sell them. So the only person I have got to keep happy is me.

[Longcruise]

Get this, in some original binghams plans one of their longbow models called for shelf 2 inches above center, read that anecdotally so don't quote me.

Certainly true of the ASL designs.   Using the typical ASL/"Hill" design it's near impossible to place the shelf any less than two inches above center. 

Some of these older style bows have the bottom limb piked by an inch or more.  That would place the shelf closer to center but I wonder what it would do to limb timing even if tillerd to zero pos and neg?  And that may not have been the bowyer's intent.  Maybe just an extreme response to a major mismatch in lams?

[Kirkll]

Not all ASL or Hill style bows are created equally.  I noticed a few of the builders that specialize in them finally came around to using power lams to push the working portion out further on the limbs which takes a lot of the kick out of that design…..I’m not sure where they locate their shelves on that design. I don’t go there myself…

 but I can see using a higher shelf height on a bow when heeling down on a straight grip and putting more pressure on the lower limb. Makes sense… Kirk

[Longcruise]

Yeah, I've been using power lams on mine lately.  Picks up the performance by about 7 or 8 percent and prevents set.

[Kirkll]

Yeah, I've been using power lams on mine lately.  Picks up the performance by about 7 or 8 percent and prevents set.

I don’t build ASL bows per say, but I have one form that has a lot of reflex that comes out looking exactly like an ASL when strung. I use an 18” riser tip to tip of fades and a 30” double ended power lam for 62”-66” bow lengths with 8” tip wedges. I drop down to 6” tip wedges on the 62” length.

The sad part is… these things have no hand shock at all, and are 25% more efficient that your typical ASL , and HH crowd won’t even look at em after the string comes off. And when they shot the bows they said , there wasn’t any thump to them and they shot the arrows too fast….

I never could sell those things for some reason… that HH group is a tuff crowd to cater too.


Btw…. That shelf is 3/4”-1”  above center on that design.    Kirk

[Buemaker]

Kirk. How fast taper did you use on that bow?

[Kirkll]

Kirk. How fast taper did you use on that bow?

I used a pair of .002 tapers with a total of .004. the power lams were .125'' thick with a 10" flat spot in the center and tapered to the tips in 10" each direction. So the taper rate for the power lam was .0125 to the fades. Bow center to fade tips on each end was 15".  here is the form i use.

Dont pay no attention to that osage stave laying on top of it... i've been working on that off and on since i built that form in 2011. One of these days / years i need to finish that thing.