Static recurve tip question

[razorback]

I am working on my trade bow. It is going to be a hickory backed birch bow. I have had the back give on two previous bows from this wood so I figure a good tension backing was in order. I am going to glue in some reflex and was thinking of adding some static recurve tips. How would you guys go about doing this. I figure if I do the reflex first, I'll have a curved surface to glue to, but if I add them to the hickory first I'll have problems clamping the whole lot together.
The bow is currently 68"ttt 1 7/8" wide to 16" then tapering to 5/8" tips. 4 1/2" handle with 2" fades.

[Pat B]

First off the bow is too long for static tips to be effective. They work better on shorter bows.
  What you can do is bend the backing and belly together in the same form, at the same time and they should mate up for glueing pretty well.
  Do you think the birch can take the extra compression stress of a shorter, static recurve bow?

[razorback]

Not sure Pat. I havn't used it enough to know. The two I have made both broke. One was poor tillering while the other developed a crack in the middle of the limb during tillering. I think there was a poor glue joint at the spot of the splinter. It was a birch backed birch with a backing from the same board flipped and glued on. Seems like it was the tension side that gave way on both, hence the hickory. I was thinking the tips to try to counter the set that might develop, along with the look. If they are not the right thing for this bow I will just go with glueing in some reflex and put some tip overlays for detail.

[PEARL DRUMS]

It would be interesting to try a birch recurve, but I wouldnt try it for a trade bow unless I knew I had time and materials to try again! I like hickory backed hickory even better. And you could kerf cut a nice recurve in like you want to do.

[razorback]

Yeh Pearly, I would like to experiment with this wood, but not good with the swap bow.  I have learnt something about this piece of wood and I think the hickory backing will be the ticket. The piece of backing I have is 1/4" thick, do you think that is too much and should it be reduced to about 1/8th. I don't want to overpower the birch, just give it some proection.

[Pat B]

I would reduce the hickory backing at least to 1/8".

[razorback]

Thanks Pat, thats what I was thinking of doing. Got a sick kid home today so will hopefully get some good shop time in.
gentlemen Iappreciate the comments, as always.

[30coupe]

I agree with Pat, the hickory will overpower the birch. You will have frets like crazy. Even 1/8" hickory may be too much. It was for me on a maple bow I attempted. Birch and maple are similar enough that I'd be very concerned about overpowering the belly with a hickory backing.

I haven't tried birch, but I'd be interested to see if the third time is a charm for you. I'm planning a hickory backed hickory next, so I'm with Pearl on that.

[1025 vs]

Birch is the best locally available wood where I live so it's what I learned on. It is very much stronger in tension than compression, so if your back is not compromised, the belly will always fret before the back goes. At least that's been my experience with it. I don't reccomend backing a birch bow at all, and I've had to go as much as 3" wide on a 68" bow to keep it from fretting at 50#. Heat treating the belly helps, but it's still weaker in compression.   Rob