I know a couple of the ASL bowyers are offering carbon. I am curious on the performance difference or difference in the way they shoot.
I have owned recurves and R/D longbows with carbon, but never a ASL.
Have not shot one. Anything that lightens limb mass should yield increase speed.
Matt, a question I had for someone on another site who had Craig back a bow with the woven carbon he provided. He answered that it wasn't about a real gain in speed, maybe 3-4 fps, but limb stability. He owns many, many ASL's old and new so I believe he could tell the difference. But me? Probably not so much. He actually admitted he had Craig add it to the bow for the look more than any preformance gains.
I am interested to hear more comments from those who have tried the carbon on asl bows. My interest is more about the "thump" from the shot. My arthritis hands can't take any and it's a real bummer.
Northern Mist Shelton. I haven't seen a noticeable difference in speed. A guy would have to have a chronograph and two bows exactly the same to really know the difference. I doubt there's 1 or 2 FPS difference.
I cannot shoot straight limb bows due to the grip.
But I do shoot the super curve recurves and my bow maker has done a lot of tests for tortional stability and his tests show that it really helps with recurves. So I would have to think that it would be helpful on other bows as well.
I could be wrong but most of the carbon bows I see the have carbon are recurves and from what I understand it for limb stabilization so the wont twist side to side from all the testing I seen done there is no significance of FPS gain.
Thanks for the information. It's interesting stuff no doubt.
I think the carbon advantage is going to be in recurves, but not so much in deep core longbows.
I could see how it could add to torque stability in a reflexed limb, but I would also think the placement within the laminations would also have effect on overall benefits. I wonder if it was in the middle if it would change or enhance the stretch and compression ratios within the laminations, which would possibly benefit one type of material more than another, sin, cedar versus a hardwood.
Larry Dean, at one time Craig offered a bow with a carbon strip in the middle. It was a special offering for members of another long gone site. One man who had one said he noticed more hand shock than on another bow with same materials and no carbon. While this had been a one off situation we may never know. I believe the gentleman who had the site has passed. My old memory doesn't recall the model of the bow or the man's name.
I remember that Jack Harrison put carbon in his Black Wolf longbows. He stated that carbon on the back allowed him to increase the trapezoid to the back of his bows while maintaining limb stability. Of course his longbows were not ASL's as such. Though his HHC, Howard Hill Commemorative, bow was much more of an ASL style.