My "Sterling Jensen" traditional recurve

[c903]

OOPS! Well..... maybe not completely traditional!

I had posted a previous thread regarding "Sterling Jensen" custom bows. A friend and I had bows made by another boyer. Some glitches caused the poundage to be much less than what we had ordered. We have those bows too. Regardless of reduced poundage, they are also nice looking and good shooting recurves.

However, we were in a quandary when we found Sterling in Utah. He said he could build bows to our specs within 4 weeks. The offer was enticing, but we would have had to push it to get everything compatible with the bow and get them shot in before the season started.

Luckily, Sterling loves to make bows and had some bows already made up. Some in his inventory were bows that were ordered but never paid for. Fate was on our side again. He had two bows in stock that, other than choosing woods, were close to our specs. We bought the two bows and at the end of the season he is going to build us our spec bows.

We started shooting these bows in last week. They are sweet to pull and very good shooters.

Sterling was a world record holder in flight shooting (his records have since been broken) and is into the science of arrow flight and bow energy.

Using his flight shooting knowledge, he has incorporated his flight shooting design into the recurve limbs, which increases limb energy without heavy draw and stacking. The limbs taper from the riser end to the mid section of the limbs, and then the thickness is increased at the start of the curve and to the tip. Sterling refers to the design as the "wedge." The wedge causes the major portion of limb to be utilized and assists in "throwing" the shaft. He also explains that the "wedge" helps the limb to quickly stop and not vibrate. From what I can tell so far, his concept is spot on.

Thought I would provide an example of some of his work. This recurve is mine. I'll try to get my bud's Jensen on at a later date.

[LBR]

Nice looking bow--it's a wonder that more don't know about him. 'Course if they did, doubtful he'd have a 4 week turn-around very long!

I'm not a bowyer, but it seems that with the wedge he's basically making his recurves static tipped, or at least semi-static? Some of the fastest recurves I've ever seen were static tipped. That's also the same thing Marc (Chek-Mate) does with the Crusader (longbow), Thunderbird, and Longhorn (flatbows). It works for sure. I've heard it called several things--double taper, stepped taper, timed taper--never a wedge though.

Chad

[c903]

He has never advertised broadly. He is known in the immediate locales and among shooters who know him and have shot with him. I found him listed in the directory of "Field and Stream" after seeing some of his bows on eBay.

I believe the term "wedge" was his way helping me understand the design configuration; because when he started talking flight science and energy factors he started to loose me. He did talk about the "static limb, " but also mentioned some negatives with the pure "statics," but that the "tapered" recurves that he builds is a limb design he has used in flight shooting and has given great performance.

I am presently trying to get two more of his "already made" for 2 nephew's. This bow looks very promising. With their draw length it should pull about 52-52#, which (poundage) is want they want.