All wood laminate

[Stickbow Hunter]

Yeah Daryl, there are a lot of American bow makers NOW using the wrong terminolgy and it certainly does cause confusion.

Jeff

[pdccr]

So which way is correct. If you had a flat bow, but you recurved it so the curved went from the back arch thats reflex right? and deflex is when you bend the back of the bow back around. To put it in simple terms.

[Stickbow Hunter]

REFLEX: A bow is said to have reflex when the backs of its two limbs form continuous shallow arcs away from the shooter when unstrung.

DEFLEX: A bow design where the unbraced limbs curve toward the belly of the bow from the fadeouts, or from immediately above the handle.

DEFLEX-REFLEX: A bow design where the unbraced limbs curve toward the belly of the bow then reverse direction about mid-limb, reflexing away from the shooter. Reflexing replaces the braced limb stress lost by deflexing.

Back of the bow is to the left as you look at the photo

Bow Designs (unstrung) 2.jpg (30.27 KiB) Viewed 2313 times

The following photo shows a range of bows made by an American bow maker. Please note that the maker INCORRECTLY refers to them as reflex-deflex designs. Every bow (barring the one named Traditional Longbow) is of DEFLEX-REFLEX design. The description of the design of a bow describes the direction the limbs go upon leaving the handle.

Bow Designs 9.JPG (68.29 KiB) Viewed 2313 times

This last photo is of a strung reflex-deflex designed bow.

Bow Designs 8.jpg (15.79 KiB) Viewed 2313 times

I hope that may help clear up the confusion for you mate.

Jeff

[pdccr]

Ok thanks for that. I think i'll stick with the D shaped longbows

[otis.drum]

jeff, what benefit is there in making a bow reflex/deflex?

[Stickbow Hunter]

what benefit is there in making a bow reflex/deflex?

To be honest I don't know that there is any. From memory I have only ever shot one bow of that design and it was a Samick (I think) copy of a Korean bow or some such bow). I think having the limbs reflex somewhat behind the handle would make it easy to torque the the bow which is a distinct disadvantage IMO.

Jeff

[ichiban]

toby,
the way i make mine is diffrent to they way most make there glass/timer or even timber/timber rather than using RCT or extensive maths i just glue up timbers that do there job well and leave the belly open so i can tiller the same way you would with a self bow. thats the way i do it cause you can work the cros section the way u want and it has a bit more of a pearsonal touch IMHO.

chers,
D

[pdccr]

Ok thanks dave, i was going to try and go for a laminated spotted gum/ silver quandong. 3x4mm lams of Spotty and a 4mm lam of quandong. I will try your method of just shaping it like a selfy as that makes more sense to me.

[ichiban]

the main thing is that for my last bow (and new 1 in the works) is that the belly needs to be thickest otherwise you risk running into the next lam, ill give u an example my next bow is:
back:2mm of hickory
core:3mm of spotted gum
belly: 1/2" of temperd boo
handle lam1: 1.5mm hickory
handle lam2: 3mm purple heart
as u can imagin u wind up with a solid block of wood to start with but its easy and good fun.

[pdccr]

Ok, as i dont have any boo, would the spotted gum be enough for me to play with in regards to the tiller? I could put some other wood on the belly like quandong but i was going for the heartwood/sapwood combo of an ELB.

[ichiban]

yeah SG wouldnt b a problem, the reason i use boo so much is acctuly pritty lame... it dosent fret.. and should the back give way the boo has never split (in my experiance) all they way through to the belly, so it stays in 1 peice (just good for safty) but with spotted gum you would need a stiff handle section like the target bows of the 40's, if you went for a bend through its length bow the handle section would be very thin and uncomfortable to grip, though there are ways to get around that.

[pdccr]

Would this style bend be "stiff"?

Image001.jpg (71.25 KiB) Viewed 2279 times

This is one of the spotty gum bows i have made and i really like the bend.

[ichiban]

that handle would be stiff, all my elbs have a bendy handle, the reason for it is that the handle can take on some of the bend reducing strain on the limbs which reduces string follow, but bows with stiff handles generaly have a more rectangular cross section which also reduces set so its just a personal prefrence. best of luck with this 1 i really look forward to it.
in a few weeks i should have the bow i gave dementions for done so ill put that up 2.....i am just darn impatiant, hopefully i wate long enough for the boo to get back up to equillibrium hehe.

[pdccr]

Ok thanks dave,

I cant wait to get it up and glued. Should have a full working week off sometime soon for bowmaking etc. Getting a new saw and bandsaw along with some other tools soon. Should see some bows and self arrows aswell. Cant wait