Set in whitewood bows...

[Minuteman]

So , heres a question for the bowyers out there that work with whitewoods; How much set in a bow do you consider too much?
I just recently finished an ash bow;69 1/2" nock to nock, 1 1/2" at the fades tapering straight to 7/16" tips, 6" long handle/fade area, pulls 55#at my draw 31".I got a little under 1 1/4" of set and I'm pretty happy with it . Usually my ash bows have substantially more set than this. It IS the first bow I've successfully tillered out on a tree with the rope and pully/ scale thing. Works great ,thanks Steve!
Either my tillering is getting better or this is an exceptional piece of Ash!(wood!)

[Steve Harville]

I think that's great for a 31 inch draw. You would probably have come in under an inch tillering to 27-28 inches like most bows are tillered.
I have only made a few whitewood bows and none of those were over 55 pounds. They all had some string follow. I never used ash. How does ash compare to elm and hickory?
I expect about 1 1/2 - 2 inches of set on most bows but I usually start out with 2-4 inches of reflex (and osage can be fixed if I mess up).

[The Dutchman]

Hi Guys, I dont use ash much, the times I did I where not impressed, maybe the ash I had was of inferior quality. I prefer Elm or Hickory,
Hickory is probably the most forgiveing of all the white bow-woods. I once made an Elm bow with a hickory back and the string follow was tremendous; some ting like 2 1/2 inches. The strange thing is that even with this tremendous set its probably my hardest shooting bow at 70@27 1/2, not my favorite though. My favorite is a 55#@27 1/2, 62 inch long rawhide backed hickory pyrmid bow. This bow has no string follow what-so-ever and is an absolute pleasure to shoot. :2cents:

[Minuteman]

The reason I started out with Ash was because I wanted to work with straight wood and Ash grows remarkably straight in a stand of trees that are about the same size and age.
I cut a coupla truck loads of Ash staves back when I started down this bumpy road 5 or 6 years ago and I still have a buncha wood that needs cut up into bows. I kinda want to try an English style LB out of it but if I do I will probably reflex it some and back it with a thin layer of bamboo. Maybe 1 3/8" at the handle, tapering straight to 3/8" tips and 70" long? Whaddya think Steve?
Over at the PA site theres a guy in Yugoslavia(I think) that makes 30 to 45 pound longbows outta ash for the medieval reenactor crowd. I'm not sure exactly what he uses, they are probably from boards ,but he just roughs it out , then rips a quarter inch of the back off,( across the width of the bow) pulls it into 3 "of reflex and glues the back back on.He says hes gettin' pretty fast bows with little set. The size of the limbs are smaller than normal because of the reflex and the lower weight limbs helps them return quicker.

[Steve Harville]

If you stay under 55 pounds it's easier to keep the set low. Length helps too.

I have not made an ELB. You should probably go for a flatter belly with bamboo backed ash.