Recurve out of alignment. Is this limb twist?

[WhistlingBadger]

So, whilst shooting this thing in and doing the final sanding and such, I noticed that one of my tips is a little out of alignment.  It isn't a big problem for shooting--the string is almost perfectly aligned with my shooting side of the handle, which I like--but if it's limb twist, I'm afraid shooting it will make it worse, and I'm also a little worried that the string will miss the bow and unstring itself when I shoot.  I'm no physicist, but I can't imagine that would be good.

What do you think?  Do I need to do anything about this, and if so, what?

See how that lower limb kinks off to the right?


String out of alignment on the tip.


It's the top limb in this picture.

[WhistlingBadger]

It doesn't seem as visible when the bow is unstrung, if that matters.

[Pat B]

Check the limb thickness from side to side out near the tip. Uneven thickness will show itself under tension without showing in the relaxed, unbraced state. If that is the case it should be correctable by evening out the thickness from side to side.
 It's a good idea not to add skins until you have put 100 arrows through the bow so any maladies show themselves. If heat or steam is necessary to make the corrections that can cause damage to the skins.

[pierce_schmeichel]

I agree with Pat in that it looks like it may be limb thickness from side to side on the width of the bow. But I guess it doesn't really matter that the skin is on there tho because you would have had sinew on there anyway and steam would destroy your sinew the same as it would the skin. Meaning you would have to reapply sinew and it would change your tiller all up again. I would say make sure the bow isn't twisting so much that it is putting the side of the bow towards the back. That would put tension on wood that has no sinew and cause it to explode haha. If it is then remove wood from the side the bow is twisting towards. But if it doesn't bother you asthetically and it isn't twisting to an extreme amount then I would suggest to leave it cuz removing wood would mean lowering draw weight and I I think you said on your last post that you were already disappointed with the draw weight.

[WhistlingBadger]

Yeah, Pat, I know, I'm kicking myself for adding the skins before I shot it in.  Dumb.  Won't make that mistake again.

Pierce, you might be right.  Maybe the skin doesn't matter for this issue.  I still wish I had waited, because I took away the option of adding another layer of sinew to up the draw weight a bit.  Oh well.

I'll check the limb thickness.  It doesn't seem to be affecting the limb as a whole, just the tip, so if I have a thickness inequity, it's probably just on the tip.  Stand by--I'll let you know.

[Eric Krewson]

East fix, heat the belly of the limb so the skins won't get toasted, put the limb tip in a padded vise; while sighting down the limb hold the handle and twist the limb lightly in the opposite direction of the twist a little past straightened, hold the pressure for about 10 seconds and release. Check your progress and repeat as necessary to get the tip in line. When everything looks good let the tip cool and you are good to go; the twist won't come back.

When I build one of my short, tight recurves, I have to do the above on at least one of the limb tips.

I never had much luck moving wood from one side or the other to bring a limb back into line except on bamboo backed bows, heat works every time. I get limb twist with perfectly even limbs side to side, it is just the nature of wood.

I know my limbs are matched because I use a contour gage to check my limb and tip shaping.

[ajooter]

Now thats a doohickie I need!! Very cool.  I hope you can get that bow lined up.  I have put the cart before the horse many times myself.  With my lack of patience I soemtimes wonder how I ever make a decent bow.

[WhistlingBadger]

Ajooter, yeah, impatience has resulted in many unsuccessful bows and even more unsuccessful hunts.  I'm more patient than I used to be...but that isn't saying much.   

Eric is the king of cool bow-making doohickeys.  I still use your tillering gizmo you send me. 

Can I use dry heat on juniper?  I've heard that's a big no-no.

I still haven't made it back out to the shop to check on the thickness.  Hoping to get to it this afternoon.

[pierce_schmeichel]

Hmm yeah I have not had much success heat bending juniper dry it gets very brittle. When it is green wood you can still shape it quite a bit but the thing with your bow there is that it is likely due to the different stiffness on each side of the wood. And since it's likely that all of your heat bending work would just go right back to where it was.

[pierce_schmeichel]

Ooo you could just try heat treating the belly side of the bow that is less stiff. Over time it would likely go back to where it was but if it worked it would tell you exactly what the problem is. Juniper surprisingly does react to heat treatments decent enough. If you try this be careful about not using too much heat and then also heat the side of the bow that the tip is bending away from. Worth a shot...maybe and then while it cools you could try to slowly just twist it back with your hand, a vise, or a clamp. But again it wouldn't be a permanent fix

[Badger]

I don't think you need to worry about it. If you start playing around with the limbs you may make it worse of too weak.

[WhistlingBadger]

You might be right, Badger.  I think I'll just leave it alone and be happy with it.Went out to a prairie dog town and put a few arrows through it.  Nothing terrible has happened, to the bow or to the prairie dogs.     So far so good.

[primlevia]

Hmm yeah I have not had much success heat bending juniper dry it gets very brittle. When it is green wood you can still shape it quite a bit but the thing with your bow there is that it is likely due to the different stiffness on each side of the wood. And since it's likely that all of your heat bending work would just go right back to where it was.

Yeah that makes sense, juniper can be really stubborn once it dries. I’ve had similar issues with trying to bend uneven-grained pieces; they just want to snap back no matter how much heat you throw at them. Might be worth trying when it's freshly cut if you're going for a permanent curve.

[WhistlingBadger]

I've found juniper steam bends very easily if you either work it green, or soak it in water overnight.  But once the sinew is on it, it pretty much is set.