gluing in reflex

[walkabout]

so ive been tossing around ideas for reflexing the tips of a board bow, and came up with the options of glue on reflex tips, kerf bending or perry reflexing. im nervous to try the kerf bending as i have yet to get a test piece done without it popping splinters, and the glue on reflex tips make me nervous too( had bad things happen to glued pieces in the past) does anyone know if i can use a short backing strip to glue some reflex into say the last 6-12 inches of my limbs?i figure if the glue fails at least i wont have a whole piece of wood flying off.lol

[Jeremy]

You can also just steam and/or heat bend it like a selfbow.

[walkabout]

yea i have no way to steam right now and ive heard red oak is hard to get to bend with dry heat.

[limbcracker]

Should be no problem. I've done it a few times. Just sand off the finish, get good matching surfaces, you only need about 1/4 inch to stiffen your tips, don't overdue it or the extra weight on the tips will slow the bow more than being whippy ended does. Taper the add on before gluing, its harder to do afterwards. You can even use superglue for this glue up. I use gorilla glue superglue for tips and add on's haven't had one fail yet, but it needs a couple hours to fully set up.

[walkabout]

i have a kids bow that im trying this on, glued a tapered piece of red oak onto 6 inches of the tip and clamped a  reflex into it while gluing. turned out pretty good for the first limb, im going to do the other one sometime today and see how that works. if it turns out well im probably going to do this to my bend through handle bow to help with finger pinch. my add on pieces on the kids bow were 1/8", although im probably going to have to go a little thicker on the full size bow.