I've built several straight limbed longbows according to Bingham's design and all have turned out pretty good and close to my desired draw weight.  For my next bow building project I was thinking of going for a pretty classic look with  black or brown glass.  On the belly side, I was thinking of NOT having a lamination over the riser fadeouts - just the glass.  If I don't put a wood core lamination over the fadeouts will this have any effect on the draw weight for a given stack thickness?

Thanks,

John

I don't know for sure never built one that way but, I don't think it would.  Your stack height will not be changing, if there is a difference I would think it would be minimal.

By my measurements and calculations it will be a pound lighter. If you put the tapers in front of the riser it will create a high spot in the middle. You will have to sand the riser to fit.

I have one of Howard Hills own bows, that he built, and that is the way he built them.   I built most of mine that way.  Check out the "Gallery" on my site:   www.dickwightman.com    click on "Archery Activities", then "Gallery".    Look especially at Foxy Lady, Cherry Pie and Osage Can You See.   These are clear glass bows and the glass/riser treatment shows up well.  Some  of the other bows are made the same way but with black or brown glass, it just doesn't show up as clearly.

Howard felt that there was a performance advantage to having all the wood lams working together as a bundle.

I use a flat aluminum form and I've never had any problem as far as tapers are concerned.

Thanks guys, I was kind of thinking that it wouldn't have much of an effect, but wanted some additional opinions.

Dick - I've checked out your site many times, as well as the Howard Hill Longbowmen's site. I started liking the looks of brown glass when you originally posted pics of your "Sweet Georgia Brown" here.

Thanks,

John