if reflex held better in thinner wood,, then you could make the recurves in a recurve bow thin,, but you have to leave them thicker so they dont bend out,, sometimes even adding overlays or underlays to strengthen the reflexed area,, , maybe it is true in some applications in a slightly working recurve,(slightly working),, if you have a reflexed area in the working limb,, it will appear stiff,, so make it look like the rest of the bend ,, sometimes the taper is violated,, and you end up with over stressing the reflexed part of the bow,, I agree the set is telling about this bow,, given were the reflex is in the limb,, I think it is good,, I think the set is due to that part of the bow doing most the work,, but if that is all the set it takes,, ok,, a straight stave bow with the same set and less mass on the outer limbs would probably perform about the same,, if you thin the reflexed area with even taper I think it will bend out and the bow will take more set,, the reduced mass may make up for it and it will still shoot well,,, it just wont have the same unbraced profile,,
