Recurving hickory questions

[Wyowhere?]

Hey guys,
I may be a glutton for punishment but after going through tbb volumes one and two and seeing the 48" hickory board bows I decided to try it...  I know these bows aren't super efficient and they stack early but I like short bows and it's going to be as much of an experiment as anything.  it's 48" ntn, with pyramid limbs tapering from 2 1/8" to 1/2".  Currently I have the limbs worked down to about 5/16" thickness and the are starting to bend a little but I think finished thickness will be closer to 1/4".

Now my question is do I leave the extra thickness in the limb until after I reflex the bow and work it down in case I have any issues with the belly, or do I take it down closer to my desired thickness before bending?  Also how much recurve can I safely get away with to help keep the string in the knocks and not over stress the mid portion of the limb?  

I will be steam bending the wood as I've read that hickory doesn't handle dry heat and can raise break across the belly.  This should be a pretty light bow, I'm shooting for about #35@26".  If anyone has any experience with this and has any input I would appreciate it!

[Forwardhandle]

Every body does it in there own way but if Im planing a static recurve hickory bow I will usauly tiller the bow to 15-20 inches depending on the draw length leaving the static tip portion atleast 5/8 thick & then steam bend on a caul and heat treat the static on the same caul a few days latter with hickory it tends to spring back preety good but after heat treating it normaly stays put  on a bow as short as your talking your probably doing it for string retention vs performance in the pics below I took during construction the tighter curve is a 44 in. hickory/sinew bow ,and for less of a curve was a 62 in. hickory sinew  make your caul  about 30% more of a curve then you want because of the spring back .  https://imgur.com/gallery/FsKvp

[Pat B]

48" is pretty short for a 26" draw and adding recurved tips makes it more demanding. I'd leave the working portion of the limbs wide the full length then taper to the recurves.
 Yellowwood gives good advise for the bending and I'd heat treat the belly also.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

At that length I would also deflex the handle area after forming the recurve hooks. So that the tips after recurving rest a bit infront if the handle. That way after it settles into its final shape after tillering the tips should be inline or just behind the back of the handle. That should take a lot of stress off with the long draw for the bow length.

Kyle

[Wyowhere?]

Yeah the recurve is mostly for string retention, I like the idea of heat treating the belly, not something I've attempted but I'm definitely game to try it.  It's a little late to deflex the handle as I got in a hurry and put a short riser block on it already, might be something to try on the next one.  not really expecting huge returns on performance out of this bow, it's primarily a learning experience so not a huge deal if it doesn't work out but I'm going to do what I can to make it work!  Thanks for all the advice