Reflex at tip

[straightarrow]

Personally I would make them match. I would make the natural reflexed limb, your bottom limb. No matter what you decide. I don't know anything about the wood your using. Some woods will hold what you heat in and others will not. Just as some woods respond to heat better. Try to research the wood before you decide. The rule of thumb is dry wood, dry heat. Wet wood, wet heat. I just bent some Osage with dry heat. I coated the limb one day prior with olive oil and right before heating. If you heat one limb you must heat the other. My 
Situation was similar and I did what badger said. I put some in one limb and took some out of the other. Worked great. Read as much as you can before you make your attempt. After you got her bent let it reclimatise before bending for a couple days... I usually wait two to three days
Jon

[bubby]

I'd go with dry heat, make you're form /caul and go to town

[BigWapiti]

Thanks for all the help everyone.

This is the first time I've tried Russian Olive and haven't heard much about it otherwise. It is and grows like a invasive weed here.  Just doin my part to prevent it's spread.

The wood feels extremely strong but it's really light so I have my doubts.

I'm going to give a caul I made a year or so back a try - have yet to use it. Fun fun

Thx again for the he'p!

[bradsmith2010]

it may even out some as you tiller,, but to even them as suggested is a positive suggestion,, if you tiller as is,, you can still get a good bow as well,,

[scp]

I don't find it particularly "primitive" to heat or steam bend bow limbs to a caul to even out their reflexes. I would rather find another stave to scrape. Most people here appear to be trying to get the most out of a stave they got. But I have several dozen staves waiting for me turn them into shootable staves. I guess all depends on what you wanna get out of a particular stave. I would rather have a shootable "bow" from a stave within several hours of "working out". How about you?

[Danzn Bar]

  Anything you do while tillering that changes the shape of the bow is damage to the bow. I would use some heat to maybe ballance the two out, reduce the reflex slightly on one side and maybe add a touch to the other. This is why cawls are so valuable they start you off with a ballanced stave.

+1
By way of further explanation.
If you tiller it to pull out the reflex then the danger is you have made that limb too weak.
If you leave the reflex then it should show slightly at full draw. E.G peculiarities in the stave should still be there at full draw. If it looks even at full draw then the reflex limb is flexing much more than the straight one and is thus too weak.
Easiest thing is to even out the two limbs before you tiller it.
Del

If you want a bow that shoots for a while ...I'd head this advice  .............IMHO
DBar

[scp]

If you leave the reflex then it should show slightly at full draw. E.G peculiarities in the stave should still be there at full draw. If it looks even at full draw then the reflex limb is flexing much more than the straight one and is thus too weak.

I would love to learn how to leave the original reflex to show slightly at full draw. Any examples?

[bubby]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php?topic=48411.0
didn't have to go far, two topics down

[JonW]

I don't find it particularly "primitive" to heat or steam bend bow limbs to a caul to even out their reflexes. I would rather find another stave to scrape. Most people here appear to be trying to get the most out of a stave they got. But I have several dozen staves waiting for me turn them into shootable staves. I guess all depends on what you wanna get out of a particular stave. I would rather have a shootable "bow" from a stave within several hours of "working out". How about you?

So do you think heat manipulation wasn't used in earlier times?

[scp]

So do you think heat manipulation wasn't used in earlier times?

Have you seen a "primitive" caul for heat manipulation? All I have seen are pictures of Japanese ones probably for gluing up.

[JonW]

Why do you need a caul for heat bending?

[Danzn Bar]

I'm not real educated, but I can see them using a campfire and two trees that's close together to do some bending...............   But I think if you get to thinking to that point you are there...
DBar

[scp]

I routinely flip the tips to reduce string follow. But I'm not even sure that is wise. I'm not even against making a caul to even out the uneven reflexes if I'm making a bow for sale or for competition. But I would rather just scrape away and figure out a way to make the tillering work for such a stave. I'm sure I have made many light weight bows that way. Maybe I should get rid of the idea of perfect looking tillering and learn the feel of well tillered bow from a stave with uneven reflexes.

[scp]

Would it be possible to use the mass principle on staves with uneven reflexes? Instead of trying to make the tillering symmetrical for both limbs, we can simply balance the stave to make sure same amount of wood is in each limb as soon as it is bending in a nice curve. Does this make any sense? Or, should the more reflexed limb be made a little lighter?

[bubby]

 Plenty of examples of flipped and recurved selfbows by native peoples I'm pretty sure they used some kind of heat for that