The Blue Meanie - Rawhide backed Mulberry

[Almostpighunter]

@ Blackhawk: I think this is the angle of view you were asking. The bow did indeed take some set, especially after shooting, but it relaxes back down again a bit. Interestingly as you can see from the photo the lower limb takes a bit more than the upper limb. I'm not sure how you can tell stack from looking at a photo as opposed to the feel of the bow, but the draw is wonderfully smooth and the hand shock in next to none, which is one of the reasons I don't get too concerned about what I believe to be an acceptable amount of set/string follow.

The stave was pretty straight so I think any deflex you see is not as a result of original shape and is indeed from set/string follow. I don't know how much performance was lost as a result, but I am very happy with whatever remains and hopefully the recipient will be as well. Maybe he will post a comment about the bow once he receives it and give us his opinion? We'll see.

[Del the cat]

Wow, that bad boy is working hard, love the tiller. No so convinced by the string colour .
Great bow.
Del

[PEARL DRUMS]

"Stacking" occurs when the string angle gets close to or beyond 90 degrees.

[blackhawk]

thanks for puttin up the pic and allowing some discussion 

the tell tale signs if a bow stacking are...

1. by drawing the bow itself and feeling it hard to draw in the last few inches

2. a force draw curve will show the last few inches of draw weight spike

3. the easiest way....a photo or seein it at full draw.....your are beyond 90 degrees....i know for a fact it stacks.

take your bow for example and put it up to another bow with the same exact weight and draw,but this bow is 80"(the other end of the extreme,or a longer recurve that reduces string angle).....now pull each bow to its 29" of draw.....the 80" bow or a longer recurve will feel waaaaaaaay smoother and easier to draw back...even tho your pulling the same weight with both bows the longer bow or a longer recurve than yours will feel like less weight to your muscles. you also loose some performance to such high string angles ....and you also incur cast robbing set when reaching these angles

[randman]

Set, stack whatever That is one beauty! Love the brace profile and blue color. Love everything about that meanie!

[Almostpighunter]

Thanks to everyone for the great comments!

@Blackhawk:
1. No noticeable stack (IMO) at full draw. Still nice, smooth and springy
2. A force curve... um... okay... uh... That one is not in my current playbook.
3. What angle are you referring to that would need to be beyond 90 degrees to automatically indicate stack?  Not being snippy, just not sure what I am supposed to be looking for based on your comment. Is it string angle, because the string angle on this bow looks to me to be greater than 90 degrees...maybe 120 degrees?

[soy]

Thanks for the unbraced pic.i find myself needing a pic or two of the belly just to drink it all in
Another nice looking stick aph

[blackhawk]

"Stacking" occurs when the string angle gets close to or beyond 90 degrees.

Pearlie already answered that .....so yeah....the angle between string and tip at full draw.

A force draw curve plots out your gain in weight inch by inch. A very useful tool in knowing if your bow has good early weight(a good thing),and will indicate if it stacks or not,plus some other useful things in bowyering. On average an average bow will gain around 2.5-3 pounds every inch. If it stacks it will gain 5+ pounds an inch the last couple inches.

[PEARL DRUMS]

When the angle gets beyond 90 degrees your not pulling the limbs up as they bend your pulling them out as they bend because there is no more bend left. Thats why flipped tips and recurves are needed on short bows.

[Youngboyer2(billyf)]

Very nice,
The blue string was a awesome touch.

[Almostpighunter]

Ah the string and the TIP! Okay, now I am on the same page. Thanks for the info!

Well, the bow is what it is at this point. Personally, I am thrilled with the bow's feel and arrow slinging performance. Did I completely maximize the potential performance here? By the "90 degree string angle = stacking" rule I suppose that is open to speculation. For me, the whole point is about arrow speed combined with comfort in the hand, smoothness of draw and accuracy... all of which this bow has in abundance IMO. Is the bow perfect? Of course not, but hopefully the new owner will enjoy it as much as I would if I were keeping it.

[Almostpighunter]

@RDK: Tips are pretty basic, but here you go.

[Carson (CMB)]

Nice bow APH.  You sure are banging out some pretty bows.  BTW, I like a bow with a little stack.  It helps consistify my anchor point, and I like it when the string is begging to leave my fingers. 

[gstoneberg]

I'm really amazed that bow has so little set.  Nearly all of the mulberry bows I've built took about that much set but they were longer.  I didn't see you mention sinew or a backing of any kind besides the snake.  An unbacked mulberry shorty...impressive.  Very very nice work.

George

[Tom Leemans]

I've been trying to score a blue racer skin(s) forever, to put on my dark purple bow! Unfortunately, most of them were victims of vehicles. That looks cool though!