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Longbow Tech Question

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Hawkeye1974:
I have been watching a documentary on youtube about longbows called the Weapons That Made Britain.  On the show the host traveled to a museum where they are researching the Mary Rose. One of the researcher's show him a bunch of bows recovered from the wreckage.
He explains to him that based on carbon and other tests they have learned that the longbow tips were designed to bend like recurve bows.
He had a couple made with the recurve feature, thenshot them against other standard longbows. It seemed the "custom" longbow shot further and was more proficient.
in fairness the guy was a really good archer but....

Anyway my question is has anyone tired this type of bow? Would it really work? And why haven't we heard about this before?     

Hawkeye1974:
Here's the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaZ6pQiYclo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

adb:
Yes, it would work. A recurved limb will store more energy than a straight limb, thereby increasing cast. None of the tips on the Mary Rose bows I'm aware of (or seen first hand) are recurved. Whether this was done in period or not, is up for debate. I think the youtube producers have taken liberties with poetic licence.

toomanyknots:
I flip my tips on my hackberry longbows all the time.

Ian.:
Put simple the MR tips are not recurved. There is evidence for bows on the continent being slightly recurved but never the English bow.



Edited as to not cause offence.

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