For years I have been attracted to deflex-reflex designs for bows, wherein the handle is deflexed and the limbs are reflexed enough so that the tips rest forward of the handle when the bow is unstrung. People claim they shoot fast, are quiet, and the draw is smooth with a nice fat force-draw curve.
It is easy enough to make a bow of this design using laminates, but I much prefer making self bows. Making a deflex-reflex self bow is possible, it just requires a well designed form to clamp the bow to, a lot of patience and heat to bend the bow to the form, and then a lot more patience and heat to fire harden the wood while it is clamped to the form so that it holds that shape.
Well, after a several hours of work using hand tools I finished the form. I steamed the hickory stave you see pictured here for an hour over a pot of boiling water to get its handle section nice and hot, and was pleasantly surprised by how easily I was able to massage it into shape on the form. I used dry heat on each limb from my trusty heat gun to get them bent and clamped down.
I have been wanting to try my hand at fire hardening, but have not been able to secure access to a place where I can use coals so decided to try it using my heat gun. I put a few podcasts on and got to it, going back and forth over the belly of this stave for about 2 hours. I am going for 50 pounds of draw at 24 inches (I prefer shooting with a floating anchor). The stave is 67 inches long, and the wood is pignut hickory. I will post more pics as I move along.
