Reverse Handle laminated wood bow

[Bayou Ben]

If you were using osage or ipe for the belly you could get away with that long of a riser, but I'm concerned with a hickory belly and that small of working length. You have a lot of room to setup your fades with a 12" riser.  FG bow dimensions don't work well with all wood bows.
You are going to need some thickness taper.  So either leave yourself extra belly and you can tiller it in, or pre taper the core and/or the belly before glue up. 

[buddyb]

I can shorten the riser, do you think maple would make a better back and belly or stick to the hickory?

[DC]

Would the purpose of this to be a shorter draw?

+1 and why?

[Bayou Ben]

I have used hickory and maple for the backs, but never the belly in this style of bow.  I would give the edge to hickory/hickory just because it has been tougher in my experience. 

[Stick Bender]

I think hickory, hickory out of those choices maple can fret easy in high stress bows I had  maple/sinew bow fret after about 1100 arrows !

[Bayou Ben]

Would the purpose of this to be a shorter draw?

+1 and why?

I'm not sure of buddy's reason, but the way I look at it, you stress the bow less with the handle on the back as opposed to the belly.
Let's say you have a 28" draw (measured from your bow hand to the arrow knock) and 1" thick of glued on the belly handle like we are used to.  Now take that 1" handle and put it on the back.  You still draw 28", but from the limbs perspective, you are pulling the bow 1" less. 

People also report that the handle is more stable ( I never know what is meant with that word) and more comfortable.  I do find them more comfortable.
     

[buddyb]

Hickory it is lol.

It isn't for a shorter draw, I'll tiller for 28" draw.

So it'll look like this back will be hickory and riser, core, black walnut and belly, hickory; 12" riser 1/8 hickory back, 1/4" black walnut core and 1/8" hickory belly; 66" ntn and 1/14 at fades down to 1/2" tips and shooting for around 50-55# draw at 28".

I'll probably use the T88 epoxy I have on hand.

Am I missing something or is there something else to be concerned with?

[buddyb]

My reasoning is that I think there will be less torque when drawing the bow and the handle just feels good in the hand reversed.

I've made FG longbows, not reverse handle though. I want to get away from FG if possible.

[Bayou Ben]

I agree, they do just feel good in the hand.  Hard to explain.

I would switch your thicknesses on the core and belly, 1/4" belly and 1/8" core, especially if you intend to taper after.  You will have to tiller in about 1/8" taper maybe more if you don't pre-taper.

[Stick Bender]

I dont know what it is with my FH bows but the handle makes me feel like more part of the bow or Im fighting the draw less if that makes sense , also I dont know what form your using but I have been playing with fire hose topless forms for a while and I came up with a real simple strait bow form by putting dado chanels in the botom of the form and .030 presure strips on the lams with the hose strapped down via mule tape wraped tightly around the hose , it took me 3 D/R bows to get the system dialed in but works great I would bet you could build the strait bow version in under 2 hrs.

[DC]

That reduced torque reason has a ring of truth to me. If I could shoot worth a darn I might try it.

[Bayou Ben]

Yeah Ritchie, it feels like your hand is "in" the bow as you draw it back, and I know what you mean about fighting the draw less.
Like I said, hard to explain 

[buddyb]

I've been toying with the idea of trying the mule tape method too. I copied this picture off of Rustic Archer's page on FB.

[Stick Bender]

Ben Im able to draw a much heavier bow then normal with that design for what reason I dont know other then DFC , buddyd if you have any questions on this type form I can save you time and aggravation & $$ it took three rebuilds to work the bugs out for me !

[buddyb]

Stick Bender I'm all ears on the form construction. I like to do dry runs before glue up and don't know how you can see the transition line between the riser and lamiations for gaps.