Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: venisonburger on September 17, 2007, 09:22:38 pm
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So, we've all talked about set and follow, my question is, if you shoot a bow and the limbs after unstringing don't come back to reflex or straight but can be gently bent back to that condition and will stay that way what do you call it? The last several bows need a little coaxing to go back to reflex. Is this string follow, and is it a bad thing. I see it that if it can be helped back to reflex and stays that way until the next time it's shot than it's ok.
VB
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I would call it follow. Set and string follow are normal in a wooden bow, we seem to forget that sometimes and act like we've failed if our bows don't hold 3" of reflex. Remember that in the TBB, Baker and Comstock seemed to think that anything under 2" of follow was normal and good when starting from a straight or nearly-straight stave.
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There is absolutely no point in coaxing a bit of reflex back into a bow. As soon as you string it that is totally erased. It has no bearing on the performance of the bow.
A bow that has a slight amount of "hard" string follow arguably has better performance capability than one with
"soft" reflex.
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I agree with Pat and the others, I would much rather have 1" of hard string follow than 4" of soft reflex. The closer you can keep your bow to the original shape it was when you started building it the better. I quit using much reflex for that reason. Steve