Stresses on a bow, reflex and deflex, wood capabilities

[beast]

well yes ryan wider bows dont look too good. not good at all. in fact they are ugly

[PatM]

well yes ryan wider bows dont look too good. not good at all. in fact they are ugly

 Well then you've limited yourself in the goals you want to achieve.

[beast]

but im having another dilemna.
what ar the effects of reflex on the whole limb, vs reflex on just the outer 2/3ds of the limb, vs just reflexing the tips.
and then, what about the recurces because those do more than reflexes by changing string angle.

another thing. I know reflex deflex bows are very fast, faster than a D longbow. But, some r/d tips are not in front of the handle. just level with them.  so the reflex does some serious work if they add some good speed despite the bow having deflex and the tips still not being in past the handle.

[RyanY]

well yes ryan wider bows dont look too good. not good at all. in fact they are ugly

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I once built a 50”ntn 50#@25” poplar bow with 60% working limb and 40% stiff outer tips that was 3.5” in the dead center. Many people called it ugly and it couldn’t shoot an arrow but it was beautiful to me because it proved my point. 

[Yooper Bowyer]

well yes ryan wider bows dont look too good. not good at all. in fact they are ugly

Agreed in most cases. It is also much harder to get a wide stave. 

Those R/D bows shoot faster because they are effectively shorter at the start of the draw, which means they have a fatter f/d curve.

[beast]

what do you mean by shorter. i thought recurves did that. the recurves that change the string angle because u start out with a small bow but when the recurves are curled out the bow elongates kinda. how would r/d start out shorter

[beast]

ryan did you just say u made a 50 inch poplar bow..
that pulls 50 pounds
and to top it off only 60 percent of the limb was working?

[beast]

oh but i just read that you said it was 3.5 inches wide.
wow that's wide.

[Yooper Bowyer]

A r/d bow is a deflexed bow with sweeping recurves, right? As the string lifts off the limb the effective length of the limb increases.

[willie]

If we can make bows wider with less mass and set is there any reason we shouldn’t be making wider bows from a performance standpoint?

from a performance standpoint, maybe no reason. guess not many have the patience for tillering wide flat short working limbs and finessing the transition to the skinny tips

[Badger]

     I think most of the time wider will be heavier anyway. I have run into a few since that first one that came out light but I don't believe that is always typical.

[beast]

tradcraftsman . i dunno if me and u are thinking about the same thing. I'm not talking about deflex bows with heavy reflex to the point it becomes recurve. I'm talking about very simple deflex maybe 2 3 inches and reflex to bring the tips level with the handle.

[RyanY]

     I think most of the time wider will be heavier anyway. I have run into a few since that first one that came out light but I don't believe that is always typical.

Maybe the challenge is to get it thin enough before bending to avoid any wood damage at all as any damaged wood could be excess mass.

[Allyn T]

     I think most of the time wider will be heavier anyway. I have run into a few since that first one that came out light but I don't believe that is always typical.

Maybe the challenge is to get it thin enough before bending to avoid any wood damage at all as any damaged wood could be excess mass.

Like trying to tiller it halfway before you actually put it on a string

[willie]

     I think most of the time wider will be heavier anyway. I have run into a few since that first one that came out light but I don't believe that is always typical.

Maybe the challenge is to get it thin enough before bending to avoid any wood damage at all as any damaged wood could be excess mass.

always a good consideration, maybe especially more so with wide and thin limbs