Tapers and Poundage

[Watsonjay]

I was experimenting and built a "longbowish" bow with a little extra curve in the tips and wedges to make them mostly static, you know kinda hybrid longbow minor recurvish to see how this would work on a short 54" bow for say 29-30" draw to help with string angle. Instead of my normal 001 taper I went with 002 thinking it would help the tips act more like levers. To my surprise the stack that would normally produce a 45-47# bow only made a 38# bow. I was really surprised that it dropped that much especially with the mostly static tips. Im sure you experienced bowyers can explain this more in depth but I though getting you guys to explain this might help some of us rookies.

[Crooked Stic]

You need to add .010 -15

[Watsonjay]

I thought by stiffening the tips it would add poundage to make up for the thinner core but I guess not enough??

[Kirkll]

When going with a faster taper rate and using tip wedges, you are on the right track for gettin* what you are looking for... but you will need to increase the stack thickness to compensate for the faster taper laminations.  I use an .003 forward taper on my hybrid long bow, and can get a 33" draw out of a 60" bow smooth as silk. Long lean butt wedges help the recipe too.

[mmattockx]

I thought by stiffening the tips it would add poundage to make up for the thinner core but I guess not enough??

Taper rate, back and side profiles work together to give you the bend you want. Weight is then set by stack thickness once you have the balance you like out of the other variables. You are correct that your stiffer tips weren't enough to compensate for the thinner stack.


Mark

[Watsonjay]

Thanks guys. I guess next time I will shoot for a bit thicker. Thanks

[Kirkll]

Another thing to think about when tweaking a limb design to achieve longer draw lengths and still maintain stability is the overall shape of your limb. While draw weights in the high 40's and over 50# are naturally more stable due to deeper core thickness, the lighter weight bows can get really squirrelly with too much overall deflex sweep to the limbs. If you experiment with limb pad angles using a flat section in the limb before reflexing the tips. This deepens the core and forces the working portion into a shorter section of the limb using static tips, and the length of the tip wedge, or even using reverse tapers can give you a much wider range of draw length potential.