. . . one of my favorite passages . . .
Originally posted by John Havard (Dryad Bows)
Mike asked me to chime in on this thread because to a fault I rarely check online. Regarding the question of "why a static tip": a static tip on a recurve is essentially a siyah used on bow limbs for over a thousand years. A siyah (or static tip) is a lever arm that influences how the recurve limb is stressed.
A traditional bow limb, be it either longbow or recurve, is nothing more than a simple spring. However, the amount of energy stored by that simple spring is a function of its design. How and where it bends along with the overall geometry of the limb and the riser have a marked effect on how much energy per pound of draw it stores - energy storage efficiency or SE/PDF.
There are any number of ways to design a spring/limb. A static tip isn't the only way to do it. Other companies use working limb tips on their recurves and longbows to varying degrees of SE/PDF.
The "feel" of the limb as it's drawn is to some degree subjective and to some degree capable of being objectively measured via a Force/Draw curve. A lever arm/static tip reduces the string angle on the fingers as the bow reaches full draw which helps reduce finger pinch. There is also a notable mellowing-out of the F/D curve as the bow gets toward the upper end of the draw cycle which reduces the incremental pounds per inch of additional draw.
Ultimately it boils down to performance - how efficiently the bow limbs store energy and how much of that stored energy gets transmitted to the arrow. We believe the design of our limb utilizing the ACS is a very good blend of energy storage and dynamic efficiency. Trying to maximize energy storage and the dynamic efficiency of the limb and the subjective feel of the limb yields an "area of common overlap". There are other ways to skin the cat but we feel that our new RCT-X limb offers excellent performance and a very nice "feel".
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regards
Scyth
