twisted

[k-hat]

K, so every bow i've made so far seems to have a mild propeller twist in it (all board bows).  Is this due to some characteristics of the wood/grain, or is it my righthandedness showing up in the scraping (I use a block plane and scrapers to true up the profile).  Don't have calipers, but the best i can measure doesn't LOOK like one there's uneven thickness.    

[PEARL DRUMS]

Most of mine have VERY mild twists, Im guessing working the same limb from the same side. So far it has never hurt a thing.

[k-hat]

That's kinda what i was thinking.  Mine are pretty mild and still shoot fine (when they don't explode, but that's a different problem!     ), but i'd like to figure out what's going on before i try a recurve, or at least how I can fix it if not avoid it.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Take a good pic and lets see how much twist you have. Mine is generally the last 6-8" inches and its usually a 1/4" or so. Sometimes you cant see it if the bow isnt laying just right, but its still there.

[No-sage]

You can use an opened wrench or even a crescent wrench to measure in a pinch.

It doesn't take much thickness to change the way a limb bends.

But the woods thickness shouldn't be the determining factor in where to remove wood.  The bend will tell you.

[Art B]

Are these bias/rift sawn board bows? Art

[k-hat]

Have to get a photobucket account before i can put up any pics.

Duh! Shoulda thought of the crescent wrench!!  I'm all about using tools for other than their intended purpose!  I looked at bowskins youtube vid about removing limb twist, tried it, but removed almost an uncomfortable amount of wood w/o any results:/

As for bias/rift sawn, still kinda muddled on how to tell all the cuts.  Most of these the rings are running at a bout a 45 degree angle when looking at the cut end of the board.  This was something i was suspecting.  If the rings rotate, then i would think the board would tend to as well?

[Roy from Pa]

45 degrees would be rift sawn. 1/4 sawn the grain is vertical, flat sawn the grain is horizontal.

[Art B]

Originally posted by k-hat:
 
Most of these the rings are running at a bout a 45 degree angle when looking at the cut end of the board.  This was something i was suspecting.  If the rings rotate, then i would think the board would tend to as well?

///// Yep, that would be my guess too////  Art

[PEARL DRUMS]

Boards like yours arent all bad, but a hard back is usually a good idea.

[k-hat]

Thanks guys!

Looks like the boards i tend to buy are rift sawn.  I've seen some good looking 1/4 sawn specimens, but wasn't sure how they'd turn out.  

So since it's the boards (and not me    ), will i need to use heat to get rid of the twist, specially if i'm trying a recurve, in which it seems twist would be more problematic?

[Aznboi3644]

I call it on ur right handiness.

I've never had any twist problems with any boards yet...rift quarter or plain sawn