Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: DC on April 24, 2015, 02:55:51 pm
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I want to make a light bow, about 30#, for working on my form. If I make a, say, 72" 30# bow can I pike it later to bring up the weight without any problems?
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Id make another bow then. A 30# 72" bow will be a total dog.
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Id make another bow then. A 30# 72" bow will be a total dog.
A bow designed to be 30 pounds and 72" with proportional arrows should not be a dog but the design should preclude it from piking it to gain weight.
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Id make another bow then. A 30# 72" bow will be a total dog.
Why???
All you need to do to make a long bow work correctly and shoot great is to use an elliptical tiller with a longer than 'normal' handle area or just keep the inner limbs nice and stiff.
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You could probably pike it later and gain weight, but you won't be gaining much. Maybe 5 pounds or so. Piking it too much might mean that you need to re-tiller the bow, as Mike indicates.
If you want to increase the draw weight by more than 5 pounds, you'd better build a new bow.
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Yeah, I have no problem taking weight off a bow... it's hell's own job to gain a significant amount.
Del
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What type of wood are you thinking about using?
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Ocean Spray and I don't mind re-tillering. I will probably make a light bow. I can see a need for one occasionally and if nothing else I can give it to someone.I was just scraping away at a lonnnng stick and the thought crossed my mind.
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Ocean spray sure is heavy dense wood. I'll stick with my original hunch.
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It'll be a dog because the limbs would be too heavy?
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Depends who you ask.
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I've never piked a bow, but have been thinking about it. I understand that shortening the bow will increase the draw weight because the wood has to bend further, but I can't logically understand how less wood can be expected to do more work. If you took the idea to its n'th degree you would end up underbuilt. Surely when designing a bow you must consider width and depth as well as length. So is piking a legitimate fix or last resort to most bowyers?
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Seems like it will just be fishing pole skinny and thus no heavier in mass per draw weight than a proportionally heavier bow.
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if you make the handle section longer and whip tiller you can make it shoot good,,
yes you can pike and and get more weight ,,, :)
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Davemac - it's about leverage. The shorter a bow become the less advantage you gain when pulling the string. So if you just lopped a foot off a bow it would be harder to pull.
The rule of thumb for piking is that 1% of bow length will give you about 5% weight increase.
Pearl no matter the wood species you can make a loooongbow a sweet shooter - make the limbs narrow and use an elliptical tiller, the center of the bow staying stiffer than if it was say a 60#'er. Ask your mate bad Chris...he'll tell ya the same as I am here.