From my research a modern ASL is right around 1 1/4 inches wide at the fades. Modern recurves from 1 3/4 to 2 inches.
Some bowyers advertise their longbows as having wider limbs, (ie Sentman), but the actual width is never mentioned.
My question is there any kind of standard for limb width between a longbow, flatbow, or recurve and does it matter?
Just as long as the string doesn't touch the limb, it's a longbow regardless of whether the limb width is around an inch to two inches?
Thanks for your time...Brett
There is so much intermarriage between longbows, flatbows and recurves anymore that even Ancestry.com couldn't work it out.
Yes - longbow is defined by the string not touching a limb when strung at any point except the string grooves. Unstrung it is sometimes hard to tell.
If you look at the International Longbow Archery Association's formal definition of a longbow.
QuoteCF3. Viewing the bow by looking onto the back surface, the bow will taper from its maximum width at centre down to the tips.
Any taper profile is acceptable and the centre section may be parallel.There must be no reduction of width in the handle area, the width at the bow centre must not be exceeded at any other position along the bow length.
That one would disqualify bows with 1-1/2" wide limbs that didn't also have a 1-1/2" wide grip width.
But then they also only allow natural materials like wood or bamboo (no fiberglass laminates).
Harsh.
I have never had an ASL that was 1&1/4", they run from 1&1/8" at the widest to less than an inch for my JD Berrys. Core depth and where and how the limbs bends, makes or breaks how an ASL will shoot. There is of course the Stotlers which are very wide, those are obviously not an ASL, they shoot as nice as most recurves, better than many, but are still considered to be longbows. How one shoots and what kind of handling one wants in a bow is more important than how it gets tagged. I will say that once one learns how to get a an ASL to work for them, a good one that fits them individually, is very addictive to shoot. I think that some find the allure of an ASL very tempting and then go back to whatever, because they they do not adjust to the bow. Those who have found that groove can tell the subtle difference between them. I have four that have very obvious differences to a run of the mill ASL, at least the difference is obvious to me. Someone else may have ones that fit them and find certain ones to be better for them.
The Toelke Super Ds are 1" at the fades up to 66" length. The 68" is just a hair wider at 1 1/16th.
IMO thickness taper rate and riser length have the most effect on fade width
Thanks to those that posted...Out of state for the holiday.