Primitive Archer

Finished heating the rest of the limb. Sprung back a decent amount but the shape is still pretty good. Bending the second recurve went much better! Changed where the steam was hitting the limb and it bent very easily. The shape is pretty even along both limbs. They each have a slight amount of twist that will need to be taken out. The wedge shape of the billets doesn't leave enough for the handle so I had to plane it down to glue on some material. The chatoyance of the quartersawn edge is gorgeous. We're expecting close to 10" here in Michigan. Working during the snow always reminds me of the MartyJam get together with the Michigan guys.

I have some ocean spray but haven’t built one yet, so I’m waiting to see how your bow turns out.    I you have a nice size stave, which is hard to find.

Bob, about how much reflex are you talking about? I find that the more reflex I have the stiffer my outer limb needs to be. About 4" is where it seems to really become an issue, unless the bow has already taken massive set, which is usssualy the case with highly reflexed bows.

Quote from: JW_Halverson on November 27, 2025, 12:00:36 pm

There is NO better rawhide for bow backing, period, end of conversation. This stuff is no thicker than a good quality business card and a grown man cannot snap a quarter inch wide thong made of it.

Guess they have to have tough hide to deal with the aerodynamic heating from the high mach numbers.   

Yup, gotta have a tough hide to keep them from falling apart on that high G acceleration!

Threy, you flat nailed that one! Excellent craftsmanship and quality. 53lb out of Red Oat is quite an accomplishment. I’ve had some “less than stellar” results with Red Oak – too much string follow. Out of curiosity, how much reflex did you put in the limbs during the heat-treating process?

Cheers man thanks for the encouragement! I'm not sure if my tillering is better than expected or whether this particular red oak is a very dense specimen but the bows are behaving themselves vey well so far.

I only heated in around 1.5 to 2 inches of reflex into the bows, just enough so that they don't take string follow or at least minimize it greatly but not enough to overstress the red oak. I find that my best change in how I heat treat is a transition from a heat gun to a slow cook over charcoal from around 1.5 to 3 hours depending on the temperature or amount of charcoal until the belly is a very dark brown  and almost black on the handle riser. I also heat treat after floor tillering to 8 inches but before stringing so as not to preemptively crush the belly fibers. I've heard many experienced bowyers mention how its much easier to prevent set than correct it.

The photo shows one of my reflex cauls after a heat treatment which gives you an idea of the amount of reflex in the limbs. The caul is set to reflex around 3.5 inches so I've put small wooden blocks under the limb tips so as to have a solid surface to clamp to whilst not reflexing them as far.