So I'm working on a Juniper bow for the bow trade. I added Siyahs, and am planning on sinewing the back, but I'm running into a couple of problems that I would like advice on.
Problem 1) So I spliced the siyahs onto the bow already, but am debating whether I should add a belly laminate near the siyah to add extra support. I forgot to take a picture of it this morning but it looks similar to this bow.
I'm conflicted. Part of me says the extra support would be good, but part of me thinks that it would add too much mass.
Problem 2) the bow is a spliced billet. the two billets came from opposite sides of a tree branch. Turns out that depending on the orientation of the wood determines how easy it is to bend, like there is a compression and tension side. For example, the bottom limb is thicker than the top limb. Originally I thought this was because the top limb was denser and thus stiffer. But I was going to try and reverse brace the bow and found the bottom limb was much stiffer when you tried to bend it the opposite direction, about as more stiff as the top limb is stiffer the bottom limb in the original draw direction. Now I have a dilemma. If I leave it tillered as is, then the sinew will reflex the top side more than the bottom because of this anomaly. If I thin down the bottom limb so it bends as much as the top in reverse brace then it will be much weaker when I get back to tillering it, potentially target weight ruining weaker. What would you do? have unbalanced reflex or risk having a weak bow?
Problem 3) I want to sinew this bow, but I also want to heat treat it. I figure heat treating would be bad after sinew, so logically it must be done before the sinew process. But I heard dry heat makes wood brittle and less able to handle tension. If I heat treat it would a reflex induced by reverse brace and sinew drying of about 3" potentially crack the belly, due to compromised tension from heat treating it? Should I risk it or forgo heat treatment.
