how does padding put the strike plate afect the arrows spine? does padding it out make the arrow shoot stiffer?
Yep. So, I have a 78lb Black Widow longbow. It's cut to centre, and I shot CX350s with 300 grains up-front. When I got a 71lb Black Widow recurve, cut past centre, I needed to stiffen those arrows up by dropping the nose weight to 225 grains, despite being lighter poundage. So, the moral of the story is that if you are having trouble finding an arrow stiff enough for a heavy recurve, you can always build the strike plate out.