Saturday 18 May 2013

Recurve on the Tiller

The recurve tips look very pretty, but it was an absolute pig to get a string on it even at a low brace.
You can see as it's winched back, it looks ok early on and then as it comes back further the right limb starts to bend rather hard in the last third, not quite a 'hinge' but getting close to it.
The left limb is pretty obviously stiffer and is pivoting the bow down on that side, so it needs the left limb easing off first and the inner third of the right taken down.
It will need a lot of fiddling and fettling to get the string alignment and tips right too.
Recurves can be twitchy to tiller and often give an impression of high draw weight yet end up being lower than anticipated once they are strung.
If I really wanted to make a recurve I wouldn't be doing it like this, but it's fun to experiment.
Gluing up nice flat laminations onto a former would be the sensible way to do it, but that's not really the point here. I'm just seeing what I can get out of this bit of twisted Hazel.
If I end up with 40# at 28" I'll be happy enough, of course I want it to be the fastest prettiest bow you've ever seen, but I don't think that will happen.

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