Sinew backed Buckthorn

[willie]

Quite nice, Marc

you mentioned evening things up a bit with the reflex in one limb, but also must have left reflex in that limb also?

[Stixnstones]

Beautiful lil bow....

[Selfbowman]

Another fine bow Marc. Arvin

[Marc St Louis]

I pretty well only make endless loop strings.  The linen I generally use is Barbour 16/2 I picked up online several years ago.  I was quite impressed with it's strength when I got it and managed to get a # of it till the source dried up.  Pat's description pretty well sums it up.

Yes the sapwood is most likely thinner down the center of the limb

Most of the reflex is from reverse bracing before applying the sinew, the rest is from the sinew pulling in a bit more reflex as it seasoned.  I don't quite know why one limb picked up more reflex.  It could be that the limb I used dry-heat on reacted differently to the sinew, unfortunately I didn't keep track of that.  There was a slight discrepancy when I reverse braced it but it just became worse as the sinew seasoned

It does shoot quite well.  I haven't shot it through a chrono but it seems that # for # it shoots harder than a straight limb bow but not quite as hard as one of my faster recurves

[BowEd]

I've had that reflex be more in 1 limb more than another after tillering to brace myself doing bows like that too.It does'nt take much difference for it to show exaggereated after sinewing while reverse bracing it.Pretty sure your correct about the reason yours did with the heat correction to 1 limb.Buckthorn must like heat correction.It all worked out fine though.I usually put the higher reflexed limb as the bottom limb.
Your bow would make a very fine turkey blind bow because of it's shorter length.

[Marc St Louis]

Yes it's not that uncommon but the difference in reflex on this bow is a bit extreme.  It doesn't really matter where you put the more reflexed limb as long as it's properly tillered

[M2A]

I never worked with sinew, but that bow maintains some pretty serious reflex for its length. Pretty cool. Real nice bow!
Mike   

[BowEd]

Yes it's not that uncommon but the difference in reflex on this bow is a bit extreme.  It doesn't really matter where you put the more reflexed limb as long as it's properly tillered

I've tried it both ways and agree it really does'nt matter for tiller but don't like removing more wood if used as top limb for slight positive tiller reasons on my bows.

[bradsmith2010]

I just finished a bow with reflex more in one limb,, at brace,, it looks like positive tiller,, but a full draw, the reflexed limb is actually weaker,,so I put it on top,,,,it seemed to work ok,, its a no handle bow, so I can shoot it either limb up,,

[Marc St Louis]

No guarantee that a good looking braced profile will give you a positive tiller.  Always best to just let the bow let you know what it wants

Made a linen string for the bow yesterday and shot it a bit.  It is quite fast.  If I can get the right weather conditions I'll take my chrony out and test it

[silent sniper]

Very nice Marc! Do you think a sinew bow performs as well as your wood laminate bows?

[BowEd]

No guarantee that a good looking braced profile will give you a positive tiller.  Always best to just let the bow let you know what it wants

Made a linen string for the bow yesterday and shot it a bit.  It is quite fast.  If I can get the right weather conditions I'll take my chrony out and test it

I always let a feel in the hand at full draw and a snap shot tell me what the tiller is at full draw.They get a good work out during tillering so no surprises ever happen.
Good luck with your testing.

I just finished a bow with reflex more in one limb,, at brace,, it looks like positive tiller,, but a full draw, the reflexed limb is actually weaker,,so I put it on top,,,,it seemed to work ok,, its a no handle bow, so I can shoot it either limb up,,

On a self bow if the reflexed limb is weaker at full draw you've compromised your reflex and removed too much wood making the bow limb a noodle.Thickness on that limb will be significantly thinner.
On a sinewed bow it'll retain it's reflex after unbracing and be significantly thinner too.Only thing saving the resting profile is the sinew if it's thick enough,but the bow will not be what it could have been used as a lower limb.Bendy handle or stiff.

[Weylin]

Great looking bow all around, Marc! Thanks for showing us what can be done. A bowyer can learn a lot from seeing a bow like that.

[BowEd]

Exactly Weylin.

[Marc St Louis]

Thanks guys

All else being equal a sinew backed bow will easily match a hard backing for performance, the only affecting factor is moisture.

Sorry Ed but I disagree.  In fact on this bow the lower limb actually looks thinner.  There are too many variables in wood itself to qualify such a statement