first bow

[John Malone]

Hello Lady's and Gents, I'm not new to wood working or archery but a total babe at bow making.
Been meaning to make a bow for the last 25 years and finaly getting around to it. I found the perfect piece of qs red oak. Its 66.5 ttt, 2 inch's at fade 3/8 at tips. 8 inch riser, 15/32 thickness entire length (except handle). Tilloring is perfect (luck). Ive been following advice from this site and things ive read over the years, but I hung a 40 pound weight on it and it pulls to 15inches why is it so heavy? Does it just need more breaking in, would like some advice before I go any futher. Thanks for any help.

[John Malone]

I should have given more info. This is a pyramid bow and I would like to end up with 50# @ 27.5 draw length. The wood was also very old growth and dried naturally.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

So your probably getting 50# at about 18". It's time to start scraping and dropping the weight. If the tiller is good, then mark the limbs on the belly side completely and scrape them evenly. The tiller shouldn't ahift too much. But you want to pull to your desired weight and no further until you hit a couple inches shy of your desired draw weight. Then between samding and shootin in it'll come the last couple inches and have you dead on for weight. Just remember to excercise plenty between scrapung sessions. But never pull past where you know is safe to pull to while doing so. When it comes to wood bows, there is no set numbers that'll give you the exact weight you want. Each piece of wood is different and needs to be treated accordingly. Just go slow and the wood will tell you what to do to get where you want it.

Kyle

[John Malone]

Thanks Kyle.