I am finishing up by first bow and want to cut in a shelf. My question is how far to cut in the shelf. Does it need to be right in the string line? I notice a lot of longbows usually are off to the side. Is there a standard offset or just whatever?
Thanks
Matt
depends on what you plan on doin. if youre going to put some thick leather or something on to ccover the shelf , you need a pit deeper. some people just do enough to hold the arrow up. others do 1/2" in.
as long as your handle is thick enough , you could theoretically go way past center if it was thick enough.
-hov
In my opinion, the shelf works best just a tad past center so that the center of the shaft of the arrow is inline with the center of the limbs and inline with the string. However, many bowyers have proven that this is not needed so based on that, go with what looks best to you.
If I'm cuttin a shelf in I usually cut it just shy of center. Generally,its just a matter of changing arrow spines if you dont cut it that far in.
Glass bows, I cut to center. Seems they can handle a wider range of arrow spines. Just make sure your riser design is strong enough to handle the deeper shelf.
James................
I don't cut in shelves but for the arrow pass I grab the handle like I'm shooting the bow and put a pencil mark where the top of my hand is. Usually it is 1" or a bit more above the center of thebow.
I usually go 1 1/2" above center. I make the handles (non bending) a little beefier than they probably need to be but I cut my shelves to within 1/4" of center. It has really helped with arrow spine problems. Honestly I think I could go closer to center than that but I don't have much time to work on bows and I don't want to break one!
Aaron