Just an idea

[Hell-Fire]

This is just an idea but would a quad limb recurve be possible? it would be very interesting to have a look at one if one exists (very doubtful) but failing an actual product some designs would be interesting to look at i will have a go at making some rough sketches to show what mine would possibly look like. but please bare in mind i have very limited drawing(art) ability. so please dont be too nasty.

[JohnK]

Do you mean with split limbs like you have on a Hoyt compound?

This would be a bad idea. Compound limbs can be nice and thick to give them all the lateral stability they require, but the same is not true of recurve limbs. Add to that the nightmare of getting two thin limbs to behave identically and I suspect you have the stuff of bowyers' nightmares

[Big Boy Blue]

One problem that springs to mind is the torsional stability of the limbs as they would be considerbaly longer than compound limbs. I would guess they would be very susceptible to twisting.

[Wrexham Exile]

rolan do a semi split limb i believe.

[Hell-Fire]

it was just one of those thoughts i get on a regular basis.the process goes think of something that i havent seen and have a crack at either designing such a peice or actually make it (the latter seldom happens but when it does the results are either good or just funny) but back to what i was thinking. more along the lines of two sets of limbs. thinking of how the string would have to look has amused me for the last 40 mins my way around the solution would be to angle the pockets on the riser so that at full draw the limb tips are very close together but then there would be a problem of how much to angle the pockets to maximise (i know i cant spell very well so please dont pick me up on it so i appologuise) efficiency so for a mental image think of a left and right hand riser joined together so that the sight windows are on the outside now if we put in a gap of around 1-2" then make this a shoot through design and so on that is one of the ways i have thought about doing this. the second is to make a cross design where the limbs make a cross and combine this with an X shape string this has the most potential of working but then you would have to manufacture correct shaped nocks for this but as a concept i belive it to be possible and would love to see one made

im open to ideas if any one else has any thoughts?

[provins]

Yup its been done.
Its featured in an American archery history website and it has cropped up on here before.
I'll try to find the web address

[Hell-Fire]

(damn there goes the dream of greatness :'( ) on a more serious note i would like to see this. a four limbed helix or is that DNA being effectivly a double helix would have looked cool

[Rik]

hmmm. I have visions of an 'X-limb' bow, with a nocking point at the place where the strings from the two sets of limbs cross... Boy, wouldn't that be hell to set up...

[Max]

I also seem to remember one from the 70's - it was a shoot through riser which looked like two short recurve bows (about the size of a mongolian bow) nailed together. Not sure if was just a prototype knocked together in a shed, or a commercial experiment. It was published in one of the NFAS newsletters.

[Wrexham Exile]

Originally Posted by provins

Yup its been done.
Its featured in an American archery history website and it has cropped up on here before.
I'll try to find the web address

if you could that would be ace. i love seeing crazy new bows