The Complete Handbook of Recurve & Longbows

Chapter 1: Understanding Recurve & Longbows

A recurve or longbow is a spring with a string on it. You pull the string, you bend the limbs, you store energy, and when you release the string, that energy pushes an arrow downrange. That is the whole machine. Everything else — the wood or carbon, the length of the bow, the curve at the tips, the brace height — is a refinement of that simple mechanism. Understanding these refinements is what separates a shooter who can buy a bow and shoot it from a shooter who can buy a bow, set it up, and make it perform to its potential.

Take the difference between a longbow and a recurve. At its most basic, a longbow is a simple arc: a single curve from tip to tip. It is the oldest form of bow, with examples going back thousands of years. When you draw a longbow, the entire limb bends evenly along its length. That produces a very smooth, forgiving draw, but the price is that the string at full draw forms a sharp angle where it meets the tips. This angle is hard on the string and hard on the material of the limb tip. It also limits how much energy a longbow can store relative to its length.

A recurve solves this by curving the tips away from the shooter at rest. The string touches the limb at only two points, near the tip, so when the bow is relaxed, there