What constructive purpose do tip wedges serve? Pardon my ignorance please but I thought that you want to keep your tips as lightweight as possible...
They stiffen the tips- generally used when you have a lot of tapers in a limb-otherwise your limbs will be whip ended.
the wedge does not have to thick or heavy to work
Trux Turning: When you say "a lot of tapers", do you mean a lot of thin lamininations (2 lams vs. 4 lams) or are you referring to the amount each of the laminations taper in thickness per inch (.003" vs. .001")? Or a combination of both?
.003 or .004 -not the amount of lams. The tip wedge I put into my longbow is 4" long, .030 to zero in thickness so there isn't a lot of mass added to the tips but it does stiffen them up enough.
Not to high jack, but could someone post a pic of limb wedges.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v488/Shortbldtr/IMG_0997.jpg)
The dark lamination between the lighter lams is a tip wedge.
Thanks Trux!