Red Elm Reflex Deflex Selfbow. Will It Work?

[WoodBenderDW]

I will soon start on a red elm stave that has a natural deflex right in the handle area which is actually perfectly symmetrical.  Has anyone made a reflex deflex selfbow before?  I'm not ready to make a laminated bow yet and I like the beauty of a bow made from one solid piece of wood.  Anyhow, I would probably just need to reflex the limbs a little bit.  Would a selfbow of this design cause too much stress on the wood or is it doable? Will it perform similar to a laminated refle deflex bow?  Any insight or tips would be appreciated.  By the way for anyone in Southwestern Ontario, I have found that A&M Wood in Cambridge sells hickory and Red Elm bow staves at a very reasonable price.

[Pat B]

I made a 60" elm static refurve with deflexed handle that came in at about 60#@28" and could have gone hights.  I found elm to be a very good bow wood that reacts well to heat manipulation and is heat treating of the belly.

[blackhawk]

S ure it'll work....here's what I've done on a couple short sinewed bows in this style. I think the sinew or a wood backing glued on will hold the reflex better but it'll still work for a selfbow.

I've taken my staves down to a good as floor tiller then as good as I can get it looking on the long string at ten inches of string travel. I then make my heat manipulations with dry heat and heat treat it over my half caul one limb at a time. My caul is very similar to what Marc St Louis uses and shows in the heat treating chapter in TBB4. Then tiller it out and watch how much pulls out,if you want to get some back you then can reheat treat over the caul in reflex again near finish tiller. Try to get the apex of your reflex at about a third from the tips.

If the stave isn't deflexed or perfectly deflexed ill deflex the handle area with dry heat using a small log under the belly and clamp it down out near the tips on a 2x4. I first heat the area up well then move quickly and clamp it down. Make sure you go thru a dry run first to make sure everything goes smooth so you can move quickly once you actually heat it up.

One word of caution in deflexing a handle is to be careful you don't move your tips out of alignment.....but since your handle area is already deflexed then you don't have to worry about it.