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Short staves- draw length and draw weight trade off - Finished with pics
Selfbowman:
Handle pics
Selfbowman:
I don’t know how wide your staves are but if it was me I would probably make a billet bow 67” long.28” draw.
sleek:
Based on those dimensions my calculator says it should take .48 inches of set. But I dont know the actual density of the wood, but I calculated it at .9 for a higher quality considering who made it.
willie:
--- Quote from: jameswoodmot on January 10, 2026, 06:22:52 pm ---
If I wanted to make a replica of one with very similar dimensions, the higher the poundage I make it the shorter the draw length will have to be to prevent it taking loads of set or snapping.
--- End quote ---
yes, at that width.
consider also that many NA bows were shot at what we would consider today, a very short drawlength. Perhaps with a pinch grip on the arrow.
if you want to shoot longer drawlengths, you need to go wider or longer. longer may be best as
wider would neccesitate a redesign of the handle to decrease the width at the arrow pass to something pratical.
jameswoodmot:
Sleek, I've got 57" of Wych Elm cut, 1 1/2" at the handle and 1 1/4" at the tips for now, i will potentially have 3" or so of flipped stiff tip. Do you need more info for your calculations?
We'll see how it does but what i'll probaby do if im patient enough is to tiller it to 18" or so and then start taking chrono reading. IF im patient and dillegent enough i think the arrow speed will start to plateau before its starts to drop? Im going to heat treat it though so as I scrape through the heat treated wood and then potentially re heat treat it that might render the reults inaccurate as far as future bows?
If it doesnt seem to be able to take the bend early on i'll sinew it as you suggest Supedav as a practice for that little yew stave.
Selfbowman, i've got plenty of long staves, I just fancy making a short bow
Thanks for all the input everyone, im starting to get my head round this wood bending! certaily is complex
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