excercising limbs?

[Schmidtster]

Hey I'm just about to the tillering part of making by oak board bow and I hear alot about excercising limbs, just wondering if its what I think... do you just pull it back a few inches 30 or so times?

[Silent Bear]

Its always good to warm the bow up before you go to your full draw, especially when it is cold out

[Osagetree]

Yes when tillering,,, in between scraping off wood from the belly you should exersise the limbs 30 times or so before re-checking your tiller again. You should not pull it more than the intended weight you wish the bow to turn out to be.

[Schmidtster]

awesome thanks guys it will be a bit before I get to that cause I have no power tools ha.. doing the whole think by rasp and sand paper should be able to put it on the long string in the next couple days time permitting.

[Pat B]

Schmidtster, get yourself or make yourself a scraper. That and a rasp is all you need for tillering a wood bow. You are better off not using power tools.
  Exercising the bow after wood removal is important to make the wood removal register and to teach the limbs to bend and recover.

[Johan van Niekerk]

What does a good scraper look like? I'd love to make one but need some design ideas  

[tishtail]

i personally used a very stout cut down knife that i added a handle to the point end and for me i keep it sharp draw at 45* to bow making full draws on limbs i keep it sharp it helps me put less pressure on limbs making very fine shavings on the passes hope this helps LjT

[red hill]

Johan, I use a knife like tishtail but mine is a sturdy filet knife. The blade is long enough to use both hands and sturdy enough not to bend excessively.
Stan

[TroyH]

3Rivers has a set of 3 scrapers or you can buy one online for just a few bucks.  99% of the time I just use the flat scraper, but the gooseneck scraper comes in handy on osage knots and dips.

[John Scifres]

Get an old handsaw.  Grind or cut a 2" x 5" rectangle out of it.  Use a sharp file to square of the edges.  Use the smooth portion of a high speed drill bit set at about 5 degrees and burnish it to create a hooked edge.  You can round off the ends or make whatever shape you like.  The important thing is squared edges burnished well.  Sharpening a Scraper