Would you flip this bow?

[Justin Snyder]

No rules, just physics.  It is about leverage. The angle where your sting meets the bow is almost 90 degrees. Pull the bow to about 20 inches and you will see that the angle is a lot smaller, maybe 60 degrees. The closer a bow gets to 90* the harder it is to pull. How hard it is to pull is a symptom of "stacking". A lot of energy that you are putting into the bow is being wasted and will not be transferred to the arrow. If you get beyond 90* you risk the string popping off, and get really low energy return. Recurving, or in this case flipping the tips reduces the string angle and makes leverage work for you making it easier to draw and putting more of the energy you used to draw the bow back into the arrow on release. On longer bows, the string angle doesn't get near to 90 so they draw easier. On short bows, you have to be careful of this.

I thought the same thing Gordon. The string angles seem really high for that draw length and that length of bow.

[ken75]

according to your original measurements your bow should be tillered eliptical . it is tillered arc of circle now and that is why your having issues with hand shock and performance. hope you can work it out though it is a beautiful bow

[DQ]

Justin - Thank you for a great explanation of the string angle thing.  Makes perfect sense. 

ken75 - I now agree with you.  I was trying to use more "working limb".  Oops. 

Live and learn!  I've learned a few things today.  Now I'm thinking of flipping the tips a little to releave the string angle and narrowing the tips a bit to lower mass weight.   It's not a bad bow right now, but I think it can be improved.  I'll let you know how it turns out.

Thanks, everyone. 

[Justin Snyder]

Make sure you flip the tips before you narrow them. That way you can shave off one side only to keep the tips lined up with the handle.

[MWirwicki]

String Angle being the angle measurement in degrees between the bow limb and the string at full draw.  When your string angle at full draw exceeds 90 degrees there is the danger of the string slipping out of the string grooves and off the end of the bow.  The results would be catastrophic.