Power Lams - Fact or Fiction?

[Badger]

Frank, the duoflex is a particular type of recurve with full working recurves, also called the wicox duo-flex. The Perry reflex can only be accomplished using a single wood backing strip over a belly wood and then foced and glued into reflex. A center lam would eliminate these tensions. i agree with eddie, I think the power lamb is simply a marketing tool, it does effectively shorten the amount of working limb which does aid in the performance of the glass bows it is most commonly seen on and in multilam bows It simply stiffens up the fade area for an easier tiller. Steve

[markinengland]

Steve,
I can see one way in which a central lam could be used to gain perry reflex advantage. A central lam could be glued to the belly stave in deflex, forming a somewhat deflexed stave (say 2 inches) , or a Perry Deflex disadvantage in which reverse stresses are put into the bow. This could then be pulled into mild reflex (say 2 inches). This could give a bow with 4 inches of perry reflex but the shape of a 2 inch relfex bow. I posted about double backed bows a while ago discussing this idea. Played around with a bit it could even give a straight bow with hidden high stresses built in. Stability and power? I wish i had the time and the good waether to try it out.
I think the relative thicknesses and strengths of the lams would be very important. My recent experimental bow seemed to show that a bow may bemore prone to breakage if something goes wrong though!
Mark