recurve question

[BOWMAN53]

Can you recurve the limbs on any bow or does it need to be a certain design. Does a board bow hold reflex well? Is red oak good enough? (Its al I can get right now)

[blackhawk]

If I'm going to put on some form of recurve or reflexed static tip on a board bow,I find it much easier to just glue on some siyahs,than trying to steam of boil a board and bend them in.

How much bowmaking experience do you have? If your still on the learning curve then just keep it simple and learn how to properly tiller a straight bow first before trying anything more advanced. Tillering and proper design are the two most important elements in bowmaking and takes a lot of time and practice to learn.

[BOWMAN53]

What are siyahs? Can you post a pic please?  And I can now get a proper tiller and hit my target weight, so I was wanting to take the next step.

[autologus]

Red Oak steam bends just fine, in fact it does better with steam than dry heat.  All of the ones I have tried with dry heat have cracked on the belly but the steam bent one work great.

Grady

[bubby]

i agree with blackhawk, although i dont have a problem steam bending boards, Bub

[Bearded Mountain Man]

F.Y.I   Siyahs are what most horsebows have instead of recurved tips. They look like this...

[BOWMAN53]

Siyahs are something I know nothing about and I've done research on steam bending so Ill just do that. is there a certain design I need if I'm gonna recurve the tips?  Mollegabet? Flatbow? Short, long? Or even a pyramid? (I'm kinda interested in trying a pyramid recurve, idk why). And is the tillering process different?

[BOWMAN53]

And they are just glued on? And can you put those on a "straight" bow?

[carpentertimw]

can you just glue siyahs to it or do you have to do fancy joints or anything like that?

[osage outlaw]

I seem to remember Josh had a nice red oak board recurve. 

[Matt Heppe]

Here's a straight bow with glued on siyah's I'm working on right now. Some people reinforce the glued area with a sinew wrap.



You don't necessarily need a bridge (the little square blocks you see supporting the string). It depends on how you design the siyahs.

[BOWMAN53]

That's really cool matt. I like that, ill have to try an make one.

[steve b.]

I agree, that is really cool.

[H Rhodes]

I think that regardless of the type of recurve you are shooting for, there is a point where the bows length is an issue.  Recurves on a bow much over 64 or 65 inches long just doesn't seem to do anything much for improving performance, in my opinion. 

I agree Matt, that is an awesome recurve.