with your help, I might actually make a good one:)

[bowman_79]

Well this is my first attempt at a static recurve. Its 63" long 2.2" wide. Im going for 65# @ 28. Is that manageable for these bitternut hickory demimsions?

Well, here is the first brace at 4" I have a little to shave at the fades of the right limb. Other than that hows it looking?
   

[bowman_79]

here are some better pics
   

I exercised the wood a little to get its new shape. Here it is at 40#@12
   

[bowman_79]

I have it bending 45@16 now.  hows it looking? Should I take off more on the outter third on both limbs?
   

[bowman_79]

Back in the dry box she goes. Heres the final pic of the night. Its 57#@25. I hope to get this one right.  Ive been in a funk lately. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

   

[Robert Honaker]

Not seeing any pics,just x's

[bowman_79]

darn it. somethings wrong with my photobucket

[Art B]

Couple things to be aware of Bowman. First, always try to draw your bow string straight back. This helps prevent any tip alignment problems once you have everything lined up. This last static I just finished I never placed on my tillering tree. Went straight from floor tiller to full brace. First and only one that I didn't have to do any alignment on. Discovered that I wasn't pulling straight down while exercising the static bows on the tillering tree and it was twisting my tips and throwing my string alingment off.

Second, get in the habit of applying a constant taper on your limbs (especially hickory) and maintain that constant taper throughout the weight reduction process. Personally I don't prescribe to that walkie-talkie-stick-tillering method on wood such as hichory myself. I apply my taper, then scrape from tip to fade to reduce limb weight. If I don't like my side profile I change it by either changing my belly taper or do some side deduction.

How about a close-up of your handle section. From your pictures it doesn't look like you have your fades working into your handle. Could be just the camera angle though.-ART B

[bowman_79]

Usually I work my fades and hadle last. Ill work on that now and then take another picture. Im pretty sure im getting my bow pulling straight back. With the amount away from the wall the string is and the way the pully lines up, they are very close to the same distance. Im curious to why hickory belly scraping isnt that good? Im not experience enough to get the correct taper down yet. Im still learning way more than I know. Thanks for the advice.

[Art B]

Not for sure about what you're referring to as "belly scraping isn't that good". But to give you an example of what I'm talking about I'll give you a run down on the hickory static I working on at present. Wood's fairly green so I'm just floor tillering for now.

Limbs 1 3/4" wide to mid-limb, or going to be once I side taper to tips (limbs are still full width). OK, limb thickness at fades are 9/16" tapered to 7/16" at mid-limb and that thickness is carried to within 6" of the tips where they're 1/2"( bending area).

You'll notice that I used an 1/8" taper to mid-limb. That'll get pretty much any bow of this limb design bending and ready for a short string assuming bow weight permits stringing. I only use my tillering board to check for even tiller at brace heigth.  But more important is that once I have the bow strung, all I have to do to reduce my weight is scrape/sand the belly full length instead of having to go back and do touch-up here and there. This method maintains my limb taper all the way through the weight deduction process. Paul Comstock got it right when he wrote that "good tapering produces good tillering" Sorry if I stirred the muddy waters just a little bit more:)-ART B

[Luke Vander Vennen]

Looks pretty good to me.  It looks to me like the right limb is softer than the left, but I've never been very good at seeing that. I think the right limb could use a few scrapes in the last 8-10 inches. With a short length like 63" ntn and the tips reducing the length of the working limb, you're going to want to get every inch of wood bending. It's looking pretty good to these eyes though    . You might want to get some more lights in there. I found that it's amazing how much different a bows tiller looks in proper lighting. Shades do funky things.

Keep us updated!  

[bowman_79]

I hear ya about the lights. Ill try to get some better pics tonight after I work the handle. I wanted the right(top) limb to be slightly positive on the tiller. Its at 1/8th+ right now. I understand now Art. I thought you ment you taper the thickness then side taper to fit the tiller. I check my thickness taper with a caliper to keep that tiller good, thats what helped me tiller this one pretty quick. It might not be perfect soo far, but it is by far my pretties tillering job.

[Art B]

It looks really good Bowman. Pictures can be misleading and therefore for this reason I never comment on someones tiller. One thing that works good for me is to keep an even tiller to just within draw length and then set what positive tiller the bow requires. This is done more by feel then by numbers.

About your handle fades, just my opinion here now, but I feel they should be finished to distrubute the limb's bending right off the bat when the limbs are first stressed. I also believe you should have your handle shaped so it can also bend somewhat (even rigid handles bend a little) to better repersent your bow's true profile. -ART B

[bowman_79]

I got done shaping the handle and these are the best pictures I can get.

 

 

[Luke Vander Vennen]

Here's my take on it, but it would be good to get a second opinion before taking off any wood.

Right now it's looking pretty good. There are no real problem spots, no hinges, really flat spots, etc. Right now it's down to finessing tiller and trying to get ever scrap of wood bending. You've got another three inches to go, but not much a whole lot of weight left to take off. Assuming you gain 3 pounds per inch, maybe a little bit more, right now you're sitting almots directly on top of your target weight. Maybe a couple pounds above, not much more. Proper tiller is more important than hitting target weight dead on, and if you miss it a bit you can add a bit of sinew anyway. Hopefully we can bring this one in just perfect first try.

If you haven't done it yet, grab a few arrows and shoot it at partial draw. Make sure you don't draw past what you have drawn on the tiller tree. Sometimes shooting a bow can really register the changes you've made in the tiller. I like to shoot my bows at least 20 times before I finish it up. That way the bow is close to being shot in before I'm done tillering, and nothing screwy happens with the tiller that makes it all wonky. Assuming you've been exercising the limbs a lot, you shouldn't have too much change in tiller when you shoot it. Only shooting it will tell.

If the tiller doesn't change at all after shooting it and it looks exactly like it does now, here's what I think you should do:
Right limb - the very first few inches right off the fade look a little stiff to my eyes. Work that area very carefully, I screwed up at least 2 bows in a row by rushing in that area. It looks like you can take off a lot of wood before it would make a difference. Lesson learned.
Left limb - for some reason it looks like midlimb is a little bit stiff. Very slightly, but enough to warrant a few passes with some sandpaper. Put away the scraper, sandpaper from here in. Actually if you can manage to use sandpaper now, you have a lot more self-restraint than me. I get way too impatient and grab the scraper. Another lesson learned, and likely tossed aside again.

BTW I would strongly recommend getting a second opinion on my tiller advice. I'm not even close to an expert, just a hack with too many trashed bows.

Thanks for taking us along

[bowman_79]

While taking the last pic I heard a tiny crack. I was hoping that it was the little sliver of wood I had under the handle. I didnt notice anything on the back. While haveing this clamped up to straighten out the tip a little with some heat I found this.

     
Is there anything I could do to keep this from blowing?

[Luke Vander Vennen]

Is that in the side of the limb? It's hard to tell in the picture. Where is it along the limb?

If it was me, I would probably try sinew the whole back and give that area a nice sinew wrap after soaking it with CA glue or hideglue. Remember though, I'm not an expert

[Luke Vander Vennen]

ttt

[bowman_79]

The crack is on the side of the limb. I put a patchwork on it with some sinew. How long should I wait before start bending this again?