I have seen discussions on parallel versus tapered lams for building longbow limbs. But I haven't seem many people who have actually tried it and what are the results. What are your experiences for you who have done it or shot all parallel lam longbows? How does it change the bow? Is it louder? Does it stack more or less? How does it affect speed etc?

Yeah, I've done both and the last few have been all parallel limbs. If the limb design is right there is virtually no hand shock and speed is really good. Couldn't tell the difference in stack. You will gain a heavier pull with all parallel lams but you probably figured that.

twice as wide is twice as strong twice as thick is 8 times a strong,  
SOOO yu should be able to make a bow narrower and then lighter by making it thicker.  you need to taper the ends if you make them thinner with tapers you need to make it wider or put a reverse taper in it to make the tip stiffer

I made one 1.5" wide at the fades and 3/8" wide at the tips, all 5/16" thick.  It bent just a little more in the inner 1/3 of the limbs near the fades than the tips.  If I were to do it over, I'd make it 2" wide at the fades to 3/8" tips, to give it a little more bend in the outer limb.

The bow I'm referring to had 0.05" glass on back and belly with 1/4" thick black walnut as the core with a 14" riser and 70" ntn.  I think it was close to 55#@29".

Interesting info. Anyone else have any input?

The man I am learning from makes great longbows and recurves. One observation he pointed out to me is that most people don't taper the outer limb veneers as they come up on the handle. He uses parallel laminations, but reverse tapers the out veneer where you don't need the thickness as it comes up the shoulder of the riser or grip area.

This thread really caught my eye! I am working on one right now.  I'll keep watching!

Wells

Now I'm hooked.  I'v built a hickory flat bow but have always wanted to build a simple hill style laminate.  I haven't yet because of no forms, no hot box...  and a whole lot of excuses.  Could you build a hill style bow with parrallel lams to the same specs that Jason is discussing.  How many laminations would you use.   Instead of making a form with reflex and such, could I use a flat stable surface as a form for with a hill style.   I would like to build a simple black glass hill style bow with plain lambs , 50 at 28, probably 68 inches long.  Thanks  Bhill

You should pull up one of Marty Thompsons build alongs. Apex Predator bows. He uses rather simple tools that most anyone has access to. He also uses a board form with inner tubes and not the more expensive hose system.RC

Thanks, I will look at that.  Bhill

I built my first few bows with tapers.  Was new at it and had a little trouble hitting weight.  I built about the next 500 with parallels, both longbows and recurves.  About 200 ago I started using tapers again.  I use only 1 .002 per inch taper in each bow and am having good luck.  A little quicker because of the smaller end with no more shock.  2 tapers in my opinion create stack faster.  By the way I did try a few reverse tapers and got more speed but did not like the hinge I was getting at the fadeouts in my design.

Bob great info! There is some real experience that is valuable. Thanks for sharing.

I've built a couple, and planning on building another in the next few days.
I've found it took a little tinkering to get the bend out away from the fades. I'm just leaving the limbs as wide as the fades for a few inches farther, and tapering them down a little quicker toward the tips.
I'm hoping the next will have the right corrections for proper bending.

hnh

Can't report anything yet, but I was running some lams on my new sander and and was planning all parallel, but I discovered that my sled, made on another drum sander I didn't care for and couldn't seem to master, isn't actually parallel, but instead produces a taper of .005 per inch.  I thought about fixing it with the new sander, but then thought again. I have one more set of lams on hand with one a .002 taper.  After that I'm going to go ahead and lay up a couple of bows with two lams (I'm building light bows) and I'm kind of hoping that that total of .001 taper off of this sled will work out well... close to parallesl, but not quite.   I'm finishing a quilt on a deadline, so I can't really get to any bow stuff till next week, but I'm looking forward to the result.