Author Topic: Reflex bow question  (Read 1105 times)

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Offline Mac43560

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Reflex bow question
« on: July 13, 2017, 03:02:08 pm »
Hello all.  I am still a new bowyer working on a hickory backed ipe bow.  I fishtail spliced the ipe and glued in 3 inches of reflex.  I didnt use a full form for the glue up, just blocks of wood and clamps on my work bench.  It got me thinking about the overall shape and how the reflex is distributed down the bow limbs. 
Have any of you guys noticed a performance difference in where most of the curve of the reflex is located down the limb or is a uniform distribution best?  Because i spliced billets, I opted to have most of the bulk of the reflex from just past the fades to about 6 inches from the tips on a 58 inch bow.  Is it better to put more in the tips, recurve ish?

Offline leonwood

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    • Leonwood Bows
Re: Reflex bow question
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2017, 04:04:21 am »
For a straight glue up ( so no reflex/deflex or recurve ) I glue in an even reflex on the whole limb. This is easy if you use pyramid shaped limbs and just push down the handle on glue up. You basicly use the fact that a pyramid tiller uses even limb thickness so when pushed down on glue up it wil bend evenly. Makes it easy to tiller afterwards as well.
For reflex/deflex glue ups I find reflex further to the tips easier to tiller and smoother to shoot. Lots of reflex straight out the handle is usually a bit unstable in the first tiller stage and if not tillered correcty can put a lot of stress mid limb. Can give pretty fast bows though.