Endless Steam Correction!

I got the re-work job finished on the Adrian Hayes Boo backed Ipe bow, I even found some polyurethane varnish to touch up where the tips had been re-worked. It looks very much in keeping with the original and is now 54# at 26"
I then got back to the English Yew stave which is rather S shaped, I've got it down to somewhere near draw weight but the tiller looks awful due to the shape of the stave. I've taken out some of the deflex and a hint of the reflex, and a bit more of the deflex and then some twist in one limb that was in

danger of giving no heart wood on one side and no sapwood on t'other. I'm now taking out even more of the deflex. The corrections get easier as each time there is less wood to bend as the bow has been worked down a tad. It often takes a few goes to get it right and the bow can settle a fair bit after being bent too. It's looking good but now has a bit of sideways bend ...beginning to get a tad irritating now, but patience is a virtue and I've clamped it up and done some dry heat near the grip with it pulled sideways by about an inch. The back was covered in masking tape to help keep the heat off the sapwood. I'll give it a few hours to cool down and have a look, some of the bend will spring out, if I've overdone it a little gentle heat will relax it back. It's tricky to get heat bends right especially when it's just half an inch over the length of a limb, all pretty subtle.
I want to leave some of the character, but I also don't want it to look off kilter.

At the weekend shoot there was a guy I'd made a bow for earlier in the year, I didn't recognise him at first due to his hat, but the bow seemed familiar. Once we got chatting it all flooded back, the bow has some character a bit like this one and is from spliced English Yew billets. The moor I saw of it the better it looked !

I've started on another project, a shooting machine for testing flight bows and arrows. I'm basing it roughly on Clarence N Hickman's shooting machine (pictured). I've got the bottom part done, but it's only really a prototype out of scrap timber to get an idea of how I'll build the final thing. Not sure if it will stand up to shooting a warbow.
I sometimes get people asking if I have plans for stuff, but I rarely draw plans... I can visualize things to a point, but I soon find that I need to work in three dimensions to see and feel how things go together. This part of the machine virtually designed itself once I'd hinged the first two bits together, but to try an draw it on paper or hold it all in my head was almost impossible.

There's still a lot to do and I may have the bow mounted either horizontally or canted at a bit of an angle. The trigger mechanism isn't a problem, but I'll try and make it simulate the archers fingers. I think a good firm but flexible mount for the bow may be one of the surprisingly tricky bits.
I'm in no rush with this and it's a fun fill in project which could provide some interesting insights into making better flight arrows for next years forays into flight shooting.