struggle to bend recurves

[High-Desert]

Once I started soaking my tips for a day before recurving, I’ve ever had an issue. Some woods don’t need it, but I do it just out of safety.

[DC]

Is it air dried or kiln dried? Apparently kiln dried is harder to bend.

[backtowood B2W]

Thank you all for helping me out!!
The caul is screwed to the vice and I steam the piece with the metal strap 1,5 m away from it.
But I will try this:
A hook at the metal strap.
Preparing a new caul with a bigger radius - about 4-4,5" for the molle ash bow.
Doing more trials with the 3", with the vice and freehand. - hopefully I can keep some!
Soaking the tips for a day
I already glued on some laminations to the maple, maybe I will use the trial errors for brush nocks.

Thank you for the help, if there is more let me know.

First I will buy a electrical cooking plate, running out of butane again. I guess boiling with electricity is cheaper. Than preparing trial pieces - I'll let you know how it goes...
B2W

[Woodely]

I don't know how much value this list is
in bow building but maple is dead last.

Stock Selection
The U.S. Forest Service has evaluated 25 hardwood species for relative bending quality. In their testing, the best 17 woods were:

Hackberry (Best)
White Oak
Red oak
Chestnut oak
Magnolia
Pecan
Black walnut
Hickory
Beech
Elm
Willow
Birch
Ash
Sweetgum
Soft maple
Yellow-poplar
Hard maple (Worst)

Maybe Maple is not great for steam bending but it bends like the wind using a heat gun,  I  have bent lots of it getting twists out and re-flexing the tips.