Started a HBH, what you think.

[razorback]

This is a hickory stave that I de-crowned to get past a gouge in the back and then put a hickory backing on it. I pre-tapered the belly and evened the natural feflex up on my caul. I then glued the backing on, at which point the reflex shifted and looks a bit like an r/d bow without much d. Here are three pics, unbraced, braced to 4" and pulled to 13". I'm shooting for 50-55# @ 28". It is at 30# @ 13". I'm keeping it in a room with a dehumidifier between working as my basement workshop is damp.

If you have any comments or input please feel free. I'm happy to get rich 2 cents at a time.

 

 

 

[Echatham]

gosh I know that that much reflex makes eyeballing tiller tricky, but it sure looks like its bending a lot out of the fades.

[Roy from Pa]

Get those mid limbs bending or it's gonna break.

[Bowjunkie]

I disagree. I don't think you're too far from where you want to be at this point. The midlimb is working quite a bit if you consider how it's changed from the unbraced profile. It's even changed from brace... showing reflex at brace, and now they've bent to where they look straight. That's what you want. You don't want this bow to begin to 'come around' until later in the draw.

If you guys look very closely at the unbraced picture, at the area about 4-5" from the dip of each limb, you'll see a slight hump in BOTH limbs. Those humps are making it look like it's bending too much at the inner limb, when it's not.

Actually, as you work it on down the tree, I'd work at getting the limbs moving closer to the dips... if they don't go ahead and do it on their own.

So far, so good, IMO.

Not all bows should be tillered to form a perfect arc.

[Echatham]

i don't know.... out to mid limb... unbraced, the limbs are straight. braced, there looks to be a serious hinge straight out of the fades, and then the rest of the limb is still fairly straight out to midlimb.  I know what you are saying bowjunkie, and i tried to look at it that way, just can't see it.

[Bowjunkie]

Yeah, I see where you're talking about, several inches out past the flares on each limb, the left is a little worse than the right, but it's not that bad. I think the residual reflex is making it look worse than it is. Removing a little wood to either side of those areas should help even them out some.

What does the front profile look like?

How is your thickness taper? Do you have a dial caliper?

[razorback]

Jeff, I don't have the numbers on hand but I do know that the taper is fairly dramatic in that area and that removing wood from the fade side should help relieve that area. My question is how much should I remove from the "flat" area of the limb. And yes the right limb is stiffer than the left.

[John Scifres]

You need to remove wood where it isn't bending enough and mark a big ole "NO" on those hinges.  The area between the handle and the hinges needs to bend a lot more.  Then from the hinges to the tips.  As to "how much?" The answer is as much as it takes. You can't measure it.  Remove some and then check it.

[Bowjunkie]

Worry about the places that are bending too much. Remove a little wood between the dips and those bendy looking areas, and try to get a gradual, even taper from dips to within 4-5" of the tips.

Do NOT remove wood from midlimb just because it looks 'flat' right now. The limbs will go from considerable reflex unbraced to some semblence of an arc at full draw... but somewhere in-between there will be a time/place that it will HAVE to look flat. Flat isn't always bad. Some bows SHOULD look flat in the limbs at brace.

I have some here if you'd like to see pics of them.

[razorback]

Thanks guys, that is what I was thinking. I will try to get the fade area moving some and see what happens as I move further through the draw. How much should I loo to get he mid limb moving. I know it is already moving a lot even though it seems flat now.