Pat it looks to me like your tips are about an inch wide at this point. Right or wrong?

Kris I do this on most of the bows I build so I can make string alignments later if needed. I do the same with the handle area. These areas do not need to be finished to tiller the bow.
Plus a wider limb tip has a better chance of bending straighter so less adjustment is needed later.

Here are a few more pics. I got both limb tips bent and added super glue to the splinter. From here on out I will continueing to straighten areas that need it then get the bow to start bending. You will see in the pics that one tip is off a bit. That will have to be straightened with a little heat. I won't know much until first low brace but this preliminary work is needed to get to that point.
 Here is where she is at this point.
 

dagnabbit I forgot that advise about keeping the tips wide.Oh well I bet if I whish they were wider later I want forget again.
Thanks Pat

Nice tip (no pun) with piece of metal holding the tip.  I seem to fight with clamps.  I might have to make me a piece of metal like that.

Pat, when you put this much bend in, do you put some wieght or something up on the limb?  Reason I ask, is I found a cool trick.  I used to try to bend the wood before it was ready and end up with disaster sometimes.  Now, when bending, I will put some wieght near the handle or sometimes the wieght of the bow is enough.  So basically the wood would bend when its ready.  

Or do you just know by feel?

The physical weight of osage and it good reaction to heat will begin to bend on its own when it gets hot enough. This is the first elm I have bent so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I did was add some hand pressure at the handle and could feel when it began to give. That's when I bent it half way, clamped it and reheated the rest and bent it. I never force the wood especially with a steep bend like this.
TBBII has a great section on recurves and on bending wood. They didn't use dry heat much back then but their forms and techniques are cool to see and read.

Pat you are my hero..love seeing your work  

Neat stuff, for sure. (Looks sort of like a double ended sled runner in that second pic there, like they used to make during/after WWII to conserve steel.)

Bernie, you should have seen the recurve I was making a few years ago. When all was said and done one tip went up the other down. Another of those brain fart moments! d;^)

im very curious about you're static recurve form. what is the radius from the cp of the circle ? does your form also incorperate reflex? how is the elm workoing for you?, i have read that it has an interlocking grain and does not let go while tillering easy. i know its a white wood. what paul comstock calls a second string wood. just very curious. ruddy

Ruddy, I don't do things precisely but I think it is about 6" to 8" diameter. I found something round about the size I wanted and tried it...and it worked.
 Back in the day if it wasn't osage or yew it was second string bow wood. So far I am pleased with how elm reacts to heat. Similar to osage it seems. Once I get to tillering I'll let you know how that works too. I know elm can be a bear to split because of the interlocking grain but I don't think it will effect tiller. This stave was sawn out to follow the grain.
 This form is only for this tight recurve. I have another for kicked up tips. it is a longer curve or eliptical and one for just reflexing one limb at a time and my big one for straightening and reflexing.

One tip each way, huh, Pat? That would have been inovative - if you could've got it to catch on -    

lookin good pat , wish i had your patients ! maybe it'll come with age . lol

love your shop by the way, looks like mine

"One tip each way, huh, Pat? That would have been inovative - if you could've got it to catch on"


I would have to frame something like that Bernie    Art

looks good so far Pat. Thanks for sharing.

I should have kept that bow the way it was but I was younger and fretted about such things. Now that I'm "OLDER" and more patient things like that don't bother me.
I got nothing done on this bow today. Maybe tomorrow.

Looking good Pat. I got a chuckle and I remember that bow with the oposing tips,LOL

Nice build along Pat, those opposing tips sounds like something I would do. I've learned the hard way to pay attention to my work more closely and don't let myself get distracted. If somebody walks into the garage and starts talking to me, I just stop what I'm doing and wait till they leave to continue.
I wish I had a dollar for everytime I screwed something up because somebody interupted my thought process.

I'm really paying attention to this thread mainly because of the wood bending tips, I'm going to try that myself on one of my Osage longbows.

If you don't have a heat gun, steam works well also for taking out crooks in the stave, but how would it work for bending the tips?

Yeah, Art - at least a picture of it framed and mounted over the workbench - LOL. Maybe you should try to re-enact the crime scene for us, Pat. You know:

"Would ya mind doin' thet agin, ol' buddy - ah missed it the firs' time?"

"Well, OK. Here - hol' muh beer 'n watch clos't this time."
 

According to severl books that is how Natives did it. Hot rocks or coals in a trench, then wet plants then the bow cover with dirt and bend ove a round log. Never tried it but hey I bet it works.

Pat have you learned nothing from my thread! You not suppose to say somthing like make sure you don't bend a limb the wrong way. Don't ask me how I know. ;p
Kelly