Like toomanyknots, I reduce the thickness of my tips before recurving. Actually, I TAPER them, heat 'em with heat gun, and bend them in a jig. Then, I apply thin laminations, increasing the curvature just a touch over the original heat bend. By tapering the tips, I get more of a bend with less work and less stress on the wood. The only problem is, you gotta put wood back (i.e., laminations). I think you can see what I mean in the pictures.
And yep...those are brush nocks, made popular in large part by Nels Grumley. They're not exactly like his signature (such as Bear Archery's Deerslayer model) but are certainly influenced by his and other bowyers' of the time. And they really do work...that is, they keep brush from getting stuck between the string and bow.
