George has a good point and this certainly could be confusing for some new people to the sport. I'll try to clarify a few thoughts and hope not to muddy the water all the more.
If a bow starts out straight or heavily reflexed and ends up looking like it's braced when it's not, then it's taken a heavy set has certainly had some cell damage and will probably shoot fairly poor. It will generally have low early string weight and a poor F/D chart.
The difference in a natural deflexed/reflexed bow is that the bow limbs have not been damaged and is still in it's natural state will full potencail of energy storage. Though the limbs tips could be even slightly behind the handle the early draw weight is achieved by stronger inner and mid limbs. The wood remains unstressed in comparison to a heavily reflexed limb and energy builds fairly smooth with the limbs loading in a (Normal) flex zone without causing the damage to the wood cells.
Example. Imagine that a limb tip is 2" in front of the handle and the bow is braced and drawn to 28" the limb tip has traveled roughly 30" total from it's original state. However take a slight deflexed stave with a slight reflexed tips that are say 2" behind the handle and brace and draw to 28" the tips have only traveled 26" from original state.
Now when we are talking about a bow taking heavy set it is geneally due to limbs being over bent to the point of causing cell damage. This could be from poor tillering or to short of bow for the draw length or a number of reasons. The point is, that less limb travel from the original point of origin, is less likely to take set if everything else is done right.
Now the trick is balancing mass and strength, to achieve early draw weight, without the excess mass that causes performance to suffer. This is done by keeping the outer thirds light as possible and just enough on the mid and inner limbs to force early draw weight. As George stated to get a bend through the fades and handle takes some carefull blending of the limbs into the handle, but when achieved can boost performance as well.
Once again I will state If the bow is deflexed because of poor tillering and overstressed limbs in will have low early draw weight and be a poor performer in general. That is why most will shoot for a straight or slightly reflexed bow when unbraced.
This thread started as a question of how to help achieve zero set or string follow. No matter which term were are referring too, I think this is something that can help achieve that goal.
