Tillering via belt sander?

[Blue EagleBum]

When tillering a board bow, is it ok to use a bench top belt sander to take thickness down at first, then fine tuning areas with a four way rasp? Taking it in small increments, of course.

[Eric Krewson]

I met a guy years ago that told me he had tried to make selfbows and failed every time. He said he broke about 50 bows and had give up on the whole operation.

I invited him to my house to show him how to make a bow. I gave him a nice osage bow blank, turned my back on him for a minute while I ran the bandsaw and heard him cussing.

He had made a trip to my belt sander, was in a hurry and had the blank ruined in less than a minute.  

Turned out that he always tried to hurry up the process and had 50, make that 51 broken bows to show for it.

I finally taught him to slow down and he started making pretty good bows.

Bottom line, if you have made a bunch of bows the belt sander is OK, if not, stick to your rasp and scrapers.

[George Tsoukalas]

I use one but mostly for roughing out but I've done whole bows with one. Beginners are advised to stick with hand tools for the reasons Eric mentioned. Jawge

[wildcat hunter]

I never used a belt sander on Osage but the Red Oak board bows I taper on a jointer, then check them with the caliper and sand them to match with a belt sander. Then I tiller them and use the drawknife to finish up the tiller process.

[Frank]

Used a belt sander years ago.  Bow turned out, it was 35lbs when I got done.

After that I only used it on hog hides.

[Pat B]

For me bow building is about the journey not the destination. IMO, you will never learn to love bow making using a belt sander. I do use a band saw to cut out the shape now days but everything else is with a draw knife, rasp and scraper. I built my first 50 bows before I got the band saw with the draw knife, rasp and scraper.

[JMartin]

Yep...I turned a 50# board bow into a 30# bow with a drum sander. Don't use it for tillering at all anymore!

[DCM]

Belt sander is a great tool, but an aggressive tool.  Like has been said, if you can't take the corner at 50 mph, you should be driving a pattern makers rasp and/or a cabinet scraper.  I rarely use a belt sander beyond the floor tiller stage, and even then with great care and countless hours of experience.  But I use the heck out of one for rough work.

[John Scifres]

I made a bow once using nothing but power tools.  Bandsaw, belt sander, dremel.  Just for the fun of it.

I've also built some using nothing but a hatchet.  And even one using no tools other than a Leatherman.  I've never made one with a rock but know people who have.

Point is, do what you want.  It's all fun.  Don't get too attached to the first few you make no matter what you use.  You will screw them up.  Get used to it.  You sure can screw them up quicker with a belt sander or band saw though.  I wouldn't use 60 grit belts.  Start with something less aggressive.

Besides, bowmaking isn't about how you remove the wood, it's about knowing which wood to remove.

[Blue EagleBum]

Thanks for all of the input, so far. It is not that I want to forsake the journey, but my time to build is very limited. My first bow took over four months to build due to this. I don't intend to tiller all the way with a belt sander. But, use it as a primary tool. Four months is a long time.

[Harperclan7]

I prefer hand tools for some of the reasons mentioned above. It is a process and takes time but the journey and the accomplishment is unbelievable. Everyone on this site has great ideas try what you think will work for you and go with it.

[Eric Krewson]

As you make more bows your process will speed up. I once took a month to make one. Except for the final tillering I could be shooting one in a day or two now if I had a better work ethic. I only like to work on bows a few hrs a day now.

Once you get a proven game plan in place you can really crank them out.

[George Tsoukalas]

Eric is right. We all have our methods. The best thing to learn is when to change tools. Sometimes one tool works better than another. For example the surform may start gouging knotted areas. Put it down and use a sander.    Jawge