A measure of how good a bow is would be how few you see on the market.  Bob made a excellent bow.  I shot several over the years at various shoots and had no complaints.  One of the many good relatively small bowyers.
 

I would almost guarantee there is a bow in that stave and maybe even a hunting weight bow. If you can get the stave down to the size on that smaller end you should be able to make a pretty good bow. You might even be able to get a light weight bow from the lower part of that smaller end.
 Don't get in a rush but take your time and think ahead about any wood you remove to get you to a workable stave.

Welcome back. 

Fletching tape works about as well as glue. 

Big changes over the past 30 years are carbon arrow shafting and low stretch strings, and I suppose carbon limb laminations and super recurve designs as well as hybrid bows (generally shorter bows with recurve (pistol grip) handles and extreme deflex/reflex limbs).     

Paper tuning was primarily introduced and popularized by wheelie shooters after they switched to trad bows.  Probably some trad folks who looked at wheelie shooters and just thought it was a good idea as well.  Not everyone does it, and it usually doesn't work too good with wood shafts because unless you''re already close to the correct spine, the arrows can leave the bow at a substantial angle and break when they hit the back stop behind the paper.

Same problem with bare shaft tuning, which is very similar.  With bare shafting, the orientation and location of the bare shaft arrow on the target is used to assess spine match to the bow, and to adjust it if necessary by changing arrow length and or/point weight, brace height, nock point height, etc.  A good number of trad shooters use this method, particularly those shooting carbon arrows.  There are probably old threads on this site dealing with bare shaft tuning.  If not, the internet is full of them. 

Though a lot of folks do use these tuning methods.  There's also a lot of folks who don't. Many wood shooters get to the correct spine through trial and error shooting different spines such as you will be doing with your test kit. They just cut the shafts to the length they want, fletch them and see which shoot the best.  Not as precise, but good enough in most cases.

Have fun. 



 

Liked reading through the Acknowledgements and seeing "Ned" Nettleton.  I have that picture in an email Ned sent me.  About 18 months ago I picked up a 'new to me' Big River mild D/R longbow 62", 60#@30".  This is my third Big River and will be for when I have to back down in weight, @54# at my draw.
 

I roughed this bow out years ago but never got past that point. I've never finished a self bow, just started several. It's 1 inch wide at the handle with a straight taper down to 1/2 inch at the tips. The handle is about 5/8 wide, no idea why i made it so small. Currently 60 inches long. There is a crack going into the side of one limb which is why I quit working on it originally I think. Another crack at one tip.

Recently got the self bow bug again and want to actually get something made. I had the thought of trying to finish this one out for my 9 year old to shoot. Something in the neighborhood of 20# at 24" or so.

With the cracks and stuff is this even something I should work on or should I just cut it into kindling now?