String grooves?

[Jorgy]

I haven't built many recurves,and I am wondering how important string grooves are or are not.

[oops sorry]

I would be concerned about the stability of the tip if there were no string groove. It might flip (twist) on you if you bumped it.

[Jorgy]

Thanks for the reply,oops.I guess I don't see any real need for them if the bow is tillered right.If the bow isn't stable when you shoot it the groove won't make much difference.

[oops sorry]

The more I think about it the less function for them I see. It is hard to imagine much self-aligning force coming from them. I like some of the bows with underlays and the groove adds a stripe....a cosmetic thing.

[Jorgy]

Yeah I can see the asthetic thing,I just wondered how functional they were because I don't have a lot of experience.

[Bowjunkie]

They're important. How much so depends on what kind of recurve you're talking about. My wooden recurves have radiused bellies all the way to the tip, and they're narrow... so upon release, I'm asking the string to return down the center of a recurve with a narrow, round belly surface. Without the string grooves on the belly, the string would likely roll immediately off the limb and the bow may not survive a single shot. This perhaps 'epitomizes' the NEED for the string groove on a recurve.

Even on 'regular' glass/wood laminated recurves, the grooves are needed to keep the string centered. Without them, even a Perfectly Aligned bow can be drawn and let down with the string off-centered if the handle is torqued to the side just a little bit. If the string is off centered, the tips will be pulled out of alignment and will point to the side.

Try this, take a recurve and pop the strings out of the grooves and off to the side and then look down the limbs and you'll likely see the tips being pulled to the side. It doesn't take much to have an effect... just the width of the string. Many folks leave their recurves strung all the time. If stored that way, with the limbs being pulled to the side by an off-center string, what do you suppose the result might be?

[Bowjunkie]

In fact, I would say... upon first stringing... adjusting/aligning the string groove, in conjunction with material removal of the outer limbs to facilitate and maintain alignment of the curves/tips on glass/wood laminated recurves, is an ESSENTIAL part of their construction.

[Jorgy]

That makes sense Bowjunkie,especially with the rounded belly.I am talking mostly about wood/glass laminated bows.How deep do you have to make the grooves,some bows don't have a lot of depth.

[Crooked Stic]

Here is my 2 pennies. You need the bely string groove if for nothing else to be sure the string stays centered. If You get a good tiller with the string droping dead center everytime without the grooves then putting them in will only add insurance. The Y grooves to me just weaken that area and are not needed. I have seen limb failure from the Y groove a few times. How deep ---Dont go thru the glass. Add a overlay on the belly maybe .040 then you can groove down to the glass plus some and  be ok.

[Jorgy]

Sounds right Crooked Stic,I suppose some guidance is better than nothing.