Backing on a Recurve

[cbarcher]

Hello, I was thinking about making a recurve but it would need a backing. Now would I add the backing then steam the tips and bend or would I have to steam them seperately. Also, if I order a string for a recurve it is supposed to be 4 in. shorter than the bow but is this nock to nock or tip to tip?I'm using red oak board core and a hickory backing so is this good or bad for a recurve. Thank you for your advice this is my first bow and I'm making a grocery list to buy materials so all information would be helpful such as different tools or to buy or to make items.

[Pat B]

If this is your first bow I would suggest a simple straight limbed bow. Learn the tillering process then move on to other project like recurving. When you recurve a bow you add more stress to a smaller portion of the limb so precise tillering is necessary.  Also red oak probably isn't the best belly wood for an overstressed bow design. It can be done but your chance for success, and mine for that matter, is limited.
   For a backed recurve you will need to bend both components before glue up. You can bend them together so they match then glue them afterwords. Pat

[Springbuck]

Red oak and hickory will be fine.  I make a lot of fabric-backed red oak recurves by cutting out a pyramid limb, then recurving the tips about 1/5 the limb length. I boil or steam and clamp to a form.  Then narrow the tip side to side, but do your tillering from the belly, mostly below the bend.  If you thin the bent portion, the recurve will pull out.

   I use a wide limb for oak, about 2-1/2" near the handle, and make my recurves gentle enough to be "non-contact" recurves, meaning that when strung, the string is still only touching at the nock, rather than laying in the recurve portion of the limb.

  Pat is right, though.  Even with a 2-1/2" wide limb and 66" or so long, the oak usually takes some set, creating a deflex recurve, and I haven't really gained much.  Making a slightly Perry reflexed, narrower, longer pyramid bow might be just as good in the end.