Another archery question

[ks13]

I found a very nice reference article here:

http://www.student.utwente.nl/~sagi/faq/trad.shtml

Good information on types of bows, materials, classifications, and usage.

And here is what happens when us engineers take an interest in a topic.

http://www.student.utwente.nl/~sagi/artikel/mathmod/mat1.html

There is probably other useful information on the site, but I haven't had the time to go through it in detail.

[deltadave]

Some Archery terms:

composite bows are made from different materials glued together. Horn and sinew are glued to a wooden or bamboo core in most cases. they may be either recurved or 'straight'.
recurve bows have a compound curve or s shape, they may be either composite or wholly made of wood.
longbows are the classic D shape when strung and may be either deflexed or reflexed
a deflexed long bow bends slightly bellyward when unstrung
a reflexed long bow bends slightly backward when unstrung
the back of a bow is the  part away from the archer
the belly of a bow is the side toward the archer
Laminate bows are made wholly of wood strips glued together and are considered a subcategory of composite bow.
Compound bows use some type of mechanical advantage (in most cases a pulley) to give greater draw and some letoff.
letoff is the percentage of weight that is held at full draw as compared to the maximum pull weight. Some compound bows have up to an 80% letoff. Such a bow drawing 75# would feel like 15# at full draw.

modern bowyers use fiberglass cloth as a material in bows to replace sinew or horn.

There are literally hundreds of different modifications and variations on the above, each region had it's own characteristic bows depending on the material available.  japan had it's classic meticulous craftsmanship with the Daiku, a bamboo recurve laminate bow that took months to complete. Mongol horn bows had very little wood in them, mostly just for a spine. England had the classic yew bow, 6' long and pulling up to 130# and the east coast Native Americans used what are called flat bows, which had wide limbs to spread the stress across as much of the soft wood used as possible.