Reflex-deflex?

[Kegan]

I've got a 60" sassafras flatbow (1 3/4" wide over most of the length) and pretty thin. It's at about 22" draw, no backing. I'm shooting for only about 50#, and it's plenty strong for that.

However, it's got stiff tips, and about 2 1/2" string follow. The tips aren't aligned well enough for recurving, so I wonder if I could Reflex these stiff tips, and then narrow them for speed and give them a bit more bend. What do you guys think?

[Ryano]

Sure. why not? 
I never worked with sassafras but if it will heat bend I'd give it a try.

[tom sawyer]

Something is out of whack if you have 2.5" of set and only have the bow to 22" draw.  Maybe the wood isn't completely dry?  Is the set focused in one weak area maybe?  A little set near the fades translates into a lot at the tips.  In any case, 2.5" of set isn't a bad result for a finsihed bow, but you aren't home yet so you want to be extra careful and remedy anything thats already taken palce so it doesn't get worse.  It can definitely get worse.

You can reflex the tips but sometimes this only makes the rest of the limbs work that much harder, and you wind up with more set that offsets the reflex.

[Kegan]

The bow was braced for 24 hours or so, so it's "broken in". I've never made such a short, narrow sassafras bow, and was worried about tillering further. So I did as Paul Comstock had with iffy pieces- left it braced for a long time.

It still has a really high pitched twang at brace, even after 24 hours of bracing. I think I'll just have at it, I still have its sister stave, and might as well see what this thing can do.

[PeteC]

I've heard tales of "fair" bows, built from sassafras,but in my humble opinion,it's a poor bow wood at best.I even sinew backed one, with dismal results.They had poor cast,and although the wood will bend well with heat,be cautious.In an attempt to improve performance in a 68" flatbow,I tried recurving the tips.One did great,but the other broke completely through. That was my last attempt with the sweet smelling ,root beer wood. I hope you can build a good one,but all that set is about par for this wood.         God Bless

[Kegan]

PeteC- I gotta say, I disagree. I recently built an absolutely AWFUL sassafras ELB. I tried mixing different dimenisons, backed it with an ugly flower print cotton sheet, and messed the tiller up really badly. The tips were much too wide for best speed, and it had been tillered so horribley elliptically at first that only the mid limbs had set- alot of it. Even so, the finished 65# bow shot really well all things taken into consideration. It wasn't that great, but I put all that on me. Not the wood.

The bow here is way overstressed. It's got about 8" or so of non-working handle, is short, and narrow. Not to mention unbacked for a "tension weak wood". However, after being broken in, it still stores a fair bit of energy, and is doing fine. The tiller is better, but the entire bow could have been done better from the start. My fault. Not the wood's. I've got an ELB stave, proper dimensions, of sassafras drying now. I'll get back to you on how well it also works for longbows. I'm also going to have to try another flatbow from this stuff, overbuilt, as it seems rather stiff for its weight.

But I coudl be just blowing smoke out my rear, since the bow isn't even done yet .

Anyway. In addition to reflexing the tips, which would have, as tom sawyer pointed out, WAY overstressed the already pushed inner limbs, I also narrowed them dramatically. I left 1" of set from the tips in, so I'm hoping more to boost the final speed with light narrowed tips instead of the R/D design. Fingers crossed, she's tunring into a ral little beauty queen here.

[Hickoryswitch]

I just glued up a hick backed sassafras a little earlier tonight. It's 62" long 13/4" wide and has about 1" deflex and 3" of reflex. I'll keep yall posted on how it comes out. Don't expect to much it's my first laminated bow.

[Kegan]

Update- So much of the reflex pulled out, but the tips remain stiff, and are now much lighter. The only remaining reflex is aesthetic (which is fine by me). The tips are being glued on right now. So, by tomarrow or next week I should be able to start shooting it hopefully. I'm just hopeing this bow isn't too overstressed, as I'd hate to see this little beauty turn into a slug.