Tillering help...Red Oak Board Bow

[George Tsoukalas]

PD, I know you are not bashing board bows.    Jawge

[PEARL DRUMS]

Hey Paul if you can make your way up here to the Elm Hall shoot in two weeks I will give you a premium White Ash stave to take back home. It wont need any straightening or heating. Just carve a bow out of it.

[SportHunter]

Thanks PD but I haven't been able to travel much over the past few years due to family health issues but things are getting better these days. I really appreciate the offer though. Very nice gang here. Sooner or later I'll be making it to some of the Midwest shoots.

[firewood]

I hate that little "tick"
+1 for being happy it went on the tree.
if it's going to go that's the best place for it.
(better than ending the post with a bloody forehead or black puffy eye)
keep at it.you will have a corner full of shooters before you know it.

[fish n chicks]

I've come to the conclusion, that I can only tell the board how heavy I want it to pull to an extent. In the end, it's going to want to be a certain weight, and so far for me, about 1/10 will come in at the weight i'm looking for (50's). Most come in at the low 40's and upper 30's. I also don't back my bows, and don't heat treat. Yet. BUT, they shoot great and are a blast to shoot. To me, in the end, that's why the bow was made. So don't get too caught up on the weight. I don't think that bow would've lived long anyway looking at the way it broke (I have a lot of experience on broken bows as well!) The one on the far left may have had a better chance. I started a thread not too long ago on tillering preferences. And I forgot what got my early shooters was tillering by hand and shooting the bow in the last few inches. Once you get her pulling to your draw length, after many many shots, and you gradually work her up to it, then put her on the tree (still at an inch less than your draw IMO if using peg style trees) to see your tiller.

I had 5 straight break on me, cause I forgot that one very important technique, but the gang reminded me in my thread, and it worked. It brought my confidence back as well, which when it comes to tillering, can make or break the whole process.

Good luck on the next one, and go at it full steam.

[SportHunter]

I just picked up a huge (8'long) old mulberry trunk. Going to try and get some staves out of it. This wood was very tough. I had to cut the whole log in half and was trying to cut it into smaller pieces but the chain on the saw snapped due to hitting a wedge. I can't confirm if its mulberry but he had numerous standing mulberrys on the property.
Had to load the huge pieces in the truck to deal with later. The wood seems sound but there are some knots to avoid. The owner said it was standing dead when they bought the place and he had it taken down in within the last month along with a few other trees (poplar & maple). Of course the good wood was at the bottom of the pile.

Here are a few pictures of the endeavor, I probably won't try something this large again:
 
 
 
 

[SportHunter]

used some leverage
 
and finally in the truck
 

[SportHunter]

Trunk was 22'' x 15'', way too big. Hopefully this will be worth the effort. At least next time anything smaller than this will seem EASY.

[Aznboi3644]

doesn't look like mulberry.

mulberry has a yellow heartwood and white sapwood.

[SportHunter]

Yeah, I'm not sure what it is. I'll try to cut out a stave and see how it does. Seems like tough stringy wood, really tough to split.