My friend wants a bow made and the dilemma is that his draw is 32” . He wants a bow of 40# ish . I have a lemonwood stave at 74” would this be long enough?
Yes it is long enough, but Lemonwood generally is backed with a thin slat of Hickory etc.
I'd suggest having a go with say 40# @ 28" first just to get used to the process, as first bows often end up under weight or explode!
Basically tillering a bow involves always pulling it to the full draw weight unless the curve doesn't look even. If you see any hint of a problem stop pulling.
So a 40# bow would progress as follows. First flexing with a long string (that just slips onto the bow).
40# at 10" draw.. if it looks ok, take wood off the belly to even up the curve and make it come back more. Back on the tiller.
40# at 12" draw .... ditto...
40# at 14" etc
40# at 16" ... it should be nicely curved now with the limb tips coming back about 5" which is far enough to get the bow at a low brace.
Back on the tiller braced... 40# at 20"
Getting close to finished now... narrow the tips, fit the nocks, taper in the last 8" of the limbs to get them coming round.
40# at 22" and so on until you get to 40# at 28".
With a laminated stave cut to dimensions, it would probably progress quicker than that, but slow and steady is the way to go. It can seem that you are making no progress and tempt you to reach for power tools... resist the temptation!
Something to note... with a 28" draw the limb tips only come back about 8".... so 3" of draw is just 1" of tip movement.
The two biggest problems with making bows:-
1. Getting your eye trained to actually see if the curve is even. (Getting your eye in)
2. Learning how much wood to removed to achieve the desired result.
Hope this helps
Del