Marc St. Louis bow question (with progress pics)

[Marc St Louis]

If the wood bends easily with dry heat and tends to keep it after tillering then it is a good candidate for a deflex recurve, as long as it doesn't chrysal easily

I used to have a build along Marc did for his bow but it's gone now. Would love to see that one again.

Which particular bow was that?

[Nasr]

 So here are some progress pics i should have mentioned that this will be a board bow. I dont have any staves dry yet and the ones i do have are red oak so i wouldnt be able to use it for this project anyway. Still pretty long so when i cut it to its final length it will have 2 inches of deflex then i will recurve the limbs and more at the tips. i went with a v splice and added a back piece and now i will be adding the riser block in after i finish sanding it down. i also kept it pretty wide (1.75"). After i add the riser block i will shape the limbs and reflex them and heat treat them (i will take pics). I am aiming for 50-55 #@28" for this bow. 60 to 62 '' ntn.

[Bayou Ben]

Good start.  You are getting after it.  So you have 2" deflex measuring how much the tips lift the belly in the middle? 

[Nasr]

 not in the middle. I put it against a flat surface and measured the distance of where the tips will be from back of bow to the flat surface. If you want i can take pics to better illustrate what i am saying.

[Bayou Ben]

Okay gotcha.  I'm trying to think about how much you will be left with after you add reflex....

[Nasr]

 Well i am going to attempt to reflex the whole limb to 3 inches past handle and i probably might end up with no reflex at all so it might be straight with the handle. but to be honest i have no clue as i never attempted this design before. tbh my main issue that i am trying to figure out right now is if i should trap the back. I have had good luck with trapping the back on white oak but in those bows I've also heat treated the belly so i am not sure if it was the trapped back or the heat treatment that helped with low set or maybe both.

[Bayou Ben]

I haven't worked with white oak so I don't have anything specific to add there, but I would stick with what worked for you before.  Those other bows you posted looked like they came out nice.

[Nasr]

added the riser piece now to shape the limbs to rough dimensions then get them reflexed.

[PatM]

You'll need to be careful heating and reflexing anywhere near the fades. That glue joint will pop apart if you're not careful.

[Nasr]

more pics the white oak limbs at this point are still more than a half inch thick.

[Nasr]

worked on handle and removed some wood from the belly. Not to happy with how the bends came out my jig need to be worked on so i can get more even bends

[Bayou Ben]

It looks good to me.  How much reflex did it retain after you took it off the form?  Looks like the white oak bends nicely. 

[Nasr]

it is so easy to bend white oak i could of reflexed it a lot more the issue was the form that i made. once i get it tillered to 20" or more i am gonna heat treat it again and i might add more reflex at the tips we will see i want to see how it holds its reflex once it starts bending ill go from there