What is the difference between a hard tip and a soft tip?

There is a big difference between hard and soft tines, just find two pictures on the internet to illustrate

This is a clear bow - hard tines (the part of the bow body that holds the bowstring is straight and hard)

This is a Scythian bow - soft tines (the part of the bow body that holds the bowstring is soft)

There is a big difference in the handfeel as well (the comparison of the same lbs. of soft and hard tines)

Soft tines are very different from soft tines, because the tines and body will bend and deform when you are pulling them. The bow tip and the bow body will bend and deform, the bow piece of the tension energy storage is very uniform (tension from the beginning of the light with the increase in pulling data and increase), rebound speed is also very fast, the bow body vibration is also relatively small, because the tip of the deformation of the work done by the bar energy storage are transferred to the arrow to generate kinetic energy, and the tip itself is also light, the movement of inertia vibration is also small, the effective kinetic energy of arrows is relatively high, the speed of the arrow can be fast.

The hard tip is just the opposite, because the hard tip part can't be bent, just with the bow body constitutes the leverage principle, the longer the tip the more obvious leverage feeling. The feel of the hand is the beginning of the pull when the feeling is very heavy, but when the bow body after bending the leverage effect began to appear, the feeling of the more pull the lighter (there is a clear sense of hierarchy), and even pull to the maximum pull according to the feeling of the force is not even half of the force of the beginning of the pull. The rebound is not comfortable, because the energy storage only the middle of the bow body, rebound bow body kinetic energy bow also used to accelerate the tip, the tip of the bow due to the consumption of rebound kinetic energy, so the overall rebound of the bow is slower, the kinetic energy transferred to the arrow is also less, and because the tip is large and heavy, its own inertia vibration is very large, after the arrow feels the whole bow body is shaking, a moment will not be calmed down.

The advantage of the hard tip is that it is easy to maintain the maximum draw (leverage reduction) after pulling off, and it can continuously maintain the launch readiness.

The advantage of soft tips is that the pull is even and the arrow is stable.

Adding to this, large poundage bows are usually hard tipped, which reduces the arm strength required to draw the bow, and even if the hard tip consumes the kinetic energy of the rebound, it can be compensated for by increasing the poundage.