self bow follow along

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

Recently I have been working on laminated fiberglass bows.  Yesterday I got the itch to go back to my bow building roots and start a good old fashion white wood self bow.

I probably have 20 or so hickory staves that are at least 3 years dry so I grabbed a nice straight one. Within 30 minutes I had mostly bow left in the piece of wood and had to quit for the night.  While I was working on it today i figured I should snap a few pics and do a "follow along" mostly just pics. I will be happy to answer any questions.

this is about an hour in to the project.  Meet my two favorite tools for wood removal at this point. Surfoam plane and a farriers rasp.  I really need to remember to wear gloves when I use that thing more than a few minutes.

 

the bow stands 66 inches tall.  Has a slight natural reflex.  at this point it is about 5/8 thick at the fade and tapers to about 3/8.  The limbs are 2 inches wide tapering the last 14 inches.  I am aiming for a finished 50# to 55# at 29 inches draw.

 

up to this point I leave the cambium on the back of the bow as protection.  here you can just start to see the wood. I use a draw knife or spoke shave to remove cambium.

 

and now it is tiller time!

 

first pull

 

and after a little more wood removal.

 

In the above pic I see the start of a hing on the left limb right at the fade, then a flat spot and the hint of a second hinge.  The right side looks pretty good. IMO.
pete

[Pat B]

Coming along nicely, Pete.

[Eric Krewson]

I would be careful of that weak spot about 6" in from the left tip. Those kind of places are bad to hing when you go to the short string.

[Osagetree]

Keep the pics coming! Looking good!

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

Originally posted by Eric Krewson:
I would be careful of that weak spot about 6" in from the left tip. Those kind of places are bad to hing when you go to the short string.

That is the second hinge that I was talkin about.  I know what you mean.  They are so easy to miss at a quick glance so you just taper the entire limb and bang.  Kids bow.  THis is still way heavy so I should be ok but thanks for the second pair of eyes and confirmation.

pete

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

Well I just got back from a hog hunting trip in FL and had a little time today after work to move this forward.

It is pulling 50# here and the draw is about 14 inches on the long string.

 

Time to get out the short string and start the real work.

pete

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

here is the bow with a long string giving a 6" brace height strung.

 

drawn to 28 inches at 57#

 

My goal is to end at 50- 52# at 28" after being shot in.   The bow is 66" long 64" string grove to string grove.  Top limb is on the right.
What do ya see?  I have been looking at the bow so much I have become blind.  I am thinking about lightening the bottom (Left limb) on the inside  1/3 just a touch.

pete

[gudspelr]

Don't know much anything about selfbows other than what I've read here, but great job    

Looks good and can't wait to see it when you're done.


Jeremy

[bigcountry]

From the untrained newbie eye like myself, I would say you need to get more bending from the fades to 6" out.  Looks to be stacking some with the string angle.  But again, thats the untrained eye of mine.  I love to guess this stuff and then see the experts opinion.

[arrowslinger22]

Hmm, I'd say that you're right about the left limb.  Besides that, the right limb is stiff in the fades to around 6-7 inches.  I'd just leave and work on the left if it was mine and I wanted 50#,  If you try to correct the right limb, you'll lose quite a bit of weight balancing the tiller again.

[walkabout]

i agree the left limb looks a little stiff out of the fades. so does the right, and im not sure how much weight youd lose trying to even it again. ive seen alot worse tillers end up just fine so its your call. great build along.

[ranger 3]

If it were me I would never pull it past the desired draw weight during tillering. If I wanted 50#s I would only pull it to 50 until I go to my draw length. That being said it looks like you need to work on the fades out to about 6" or 7" I don't think you will lose that much weight taking more off there. Go slow

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

Ranger,  

I have been playing that game both ways with the wights. It seems with my hickory bows i do best if  I take it to about 5# heavy and then shoot it in. After about 200 shots they always seem to  loose some weight. After that I tiller the last little bit out.  I never draw over the target weight till the last inch.  The bow is moving out of the fades but I do agree I should loose a little bit there. I have a few # left to take out so I will continue a bit of tillering. Thanks for the eyeballs on the tiller.   Any other Ideas?


pete

[walkabout]

left limb toward the tip looks a little stiff too, i keep mine stiff for 5 inches of the tip but the area just before should be bending smoothly too, if you have a tillering block doohickey or even a 4 inch block check it there to see if its stiff. shouldnt take much to get it bending, maybe even a little sanding rather than scraping.

[TheBronzeAge]

Question from a total newbie who got handed a hickory blank: for 50lb draw about how thick (back to belly) would you expect the limbs to be?

[Pennsyltuckey pete]

As far as the thickness to draw weight question the answer is something like, "that depends on how wide you make the limbs, how long the bow is and what is the taper to the tip?"  The wider the limbs are the thinner they will be.  this bow is about 11/32 at the tip and just under 5/8 near the end of the fade.  These measurements were taken from the crown of the back to the flat of the belly. Not the sides of the limb.   The limbs are 2" wide and start tapering 16 inches from the tip.  Not the sides of the limb.

I will touch the tips a little after I do the fades. I got involved in a different bow project so Keep the input coming.  I will hit this one tonight though.

pete

[bigcountry]

Originally posted by Pennsyltuckey pete:
Ranger,  

I have been playing that game both ways with the wights. It seems with my hickory bows i do best if  I take it to about 5# heavy and then shoot it in. After about 200 shots they always seem to  loose some weight. After that I tiller the last little bit out.  I never draw over the target weight till the last inch.  The bow is moving out of the fades but I do agree I should loose a little bit there. I have a few # left to take out so I will continue a bit of tillering. Thanks for the eyeballs on the tiller.   Any other Ideas?


pete

thats a good plan I plan to start using.  I am getting tired of tillering a bow and shooting it about 100 shots and developing problems or micro hinges.  I also started sweating the bow a few hours too before serious tillering.  This seemed to keep things more stable.

[David Holt]

The left limb definately looks a little bit stiffer.  You'd have to go really slowly in the fades or end up playing the left limb/right limb tillering game I seem to be great at    .  I haven't had the chance to try it yet but I read in the TBB 4 that tillering from the sides of the limb take less weight and with 2" at the fades you have a little room to spare IMHO.

[FerretWYO]

Good stuff Pete. Looks like a great bow.

[George Tsoukalas]

I like to get that near handle wood moving a bit  more. Jawge