>>2078541This is the right place, the first reply is a moron.
Have you ever done archery before? Steel is way too heavy for a bow.
When choosing materials, you're looking for wood, monodirectional fiberglass, or plastic. The right fiberglass is made specifically for bow limbs. But choosing a wood and plastic, you are looking for types with both compressive and tensile strength. PVC is the most common plastic, but high end manufacturers have come out with cast polycarbonate resin bows. For wood, you want; yew, osage, hickory, oak, or maple. Any suitably straight wood CAN be made into a bow, but more brittle ones need to be made comically long and wide. For individual pieces, you are looking for minimal or no imperfections, and straight grain from end to end.
Wood can be backed to lessen the chance of breaking. Fiberglass carpet tape is the ghetto version, strips of specifically made fiberglass are the industry standard. Individual bowyers also back with hickory and bamboo; jute and linen; sinew, rawhide, and snakeskin.
For design considerations, the bow should be two or more times the length of your draw, depending upon your materials. Eastern composites are the shortest, with english longbows being longest--often measuring the height of the user. Speed is determined by limb and tip weight, draw weight, working limb size, and reflex.
Reflex is either naturally occurring in the wood, or induced with gentle heating and bending. The stronger the initial reflex, the more energy is distributed throughout the draw cycle.
The absolute peak of bowyery is the eastern composite bow. Composed of maple, horn, and sinew, held together by collagen glue. It takes six months to produce, and can be reflexed so far the tips touch before stringing. Historical examples reach beyond 300# draw weight, and the technology was used from Hungary and Greece to Korea and Malaysia.
