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Benefits of a lenticular crossection for white wood bows?
Aksel:
willie, yes it´s a bit mysterious. Especially on such a bow where the maker was trying to push the stave to max performance with really long stiff-ish levers. But it´s deliberate and seems he wanted that symmetrical thick lenticular cross-section. That bow is estimated to 74 inches btw...
willie:
TBB 3
--- Quote ---North Andaman Island bow staves were selected from small-diameter trees having a natural reflex in what would be the mid upper limb only. The stave was decrowned, back and belly, creating a wide, flat lenticular — therefore very flexible—finished limb. South Andaman Island limbs were straighter. Longman reported a similar design in the New Hebrides.
--- End quote ---
although maybe lenticular in this description referred to width profile rather than crossection profile
pics showing crossection with flat belly
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/paleoplanet69529/some-details-of-a-south-andaman-bow-t38355.html
Aksel:
Willie, yes I´ve seen those on PP.
Fascinating bows and proves that "primitive" people went to great lengths making very sophisticated bows with simple tools and didn´t settle for something only good enough.
Those incisions in the pictures btw resemble some found on mesolithic bows. Interesting.
Selfbowman:
--- Quote from: RyanY on March 27, 2024, 08:12:46 pm ---I think this is likely difficult to determine and more than likely a matter of doing what works with what we’ve got. I don’t think a flat versus rounded belly makes enough of a practical difference for bowyers to notice and choose one over the other from both a performance and safety factor. I can’t say with certainty but it seems our knowledge of engineering and physics helped us understand that relationship more than discovery from trial and error in bows. As with evolution, if it works good enough it survives. Doesn’t have to mean that it is necessarily the best.
--- End quote ---
Very true! I’ve played with this for twenty years now with Osage. Flat belly’s , long and skinny, rounded belly’s , wide flat belly’s, trapping the backs, narrow tips , reflex,deflex, and a SHELF ,all the time trying to achieve a faster smoother bow. And I keep going back to the bow you see me post so often. Bowyers of a thousand years ago were no different I’m sure.
willie:
--- Quote from: Selfbowman on April 07, 2024, 03:03:55 pm --- And I keep going back to the bow you see me post so often. Bowyers of a thousand years ago were no different I’m sure.
--- End quote ---
And I would like to think that any number of good designs would suffice, and at some point, a more deciding factor is the skill of the bowyer to execute exceptional tiller
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