First osage bow....Full Draw pic!!

[John Scifres]

You are doing great.  Keep up the good work.  I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.  My wife walked in while I was boiling a bow tip for a recurve and had a similar reaction.  She has the same reaction often for me  

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Justin- Make one for yourself, it's simple and you will see how it will change the way you tiller a selbow forever. No kidding.

Here>>--->  http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=001047

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

Thanks for the kind words John... Thanks Chris for the grunt work in finding that post. I plan on making one. I also need to put together a tillering tree.

Anyone have any suggestion on making one of those. Does it look like I am ready for it or what should my next step be. Maybe a little more bend through the mid limb area.

Have a great weekend guys. I am going to be teaching a bow hunter ed class and plan on brining this bow to my class and show it off. Maybe turn on some light bulbs and have a student be interested. I will send them to Tradgang!!!

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

Thanks for the kind words John... Thanks Chris for the grunt work in finding that post. I plan on making one. I also need to put together a tillering tree.

Anyone have any suggestion on making one of those. Does it look like I am ready for it or what should my next step be. Maybe a little more bend through the mid limb area.

Have a great weekend guys. I am going to be teaching a bow hunter ed class and plan on brining this bow to my class and show it off. Maybe turn on some light bulbs and have a student be interested. I will send them to Tradgang!!!  

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Don't do anymore tillering until you have a tree and a gizmo to run up and down the limb to mark the high spots. Then a palm sander is in order also, you wouldn't believe how uneven the limbs can be till you start running over them with the palm sander. It made a believer out of me and I thought my scraping was as flat as Kansas......how wrong I was. The scraper leaves hills and valleys then it ends up like a wash board, you can't hardly see it, and you can just barely feel it, but it's there all right. The palm sander will take care of that.

Take a look at some tillering trees that other guys are using and you can get some ideas of what style you want. Mine is simply an oak board that was begging to be used for something with holes drilled every inch out to about 32" and I use a 3/8 wooden dowl for a peg to move from one increment to another. Then I screwed it to the wall inside my garage at about the height that was comfortable for me, be sure to put the screws in a stud so they don't pull out.
It's actually more just a tillering board that's screwed into the wall and not an actual tillering tree, but it is whatever you want to call it. Same basic principle.
Here's some close up pics of mine.

 

 

 

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

Good morning fellas... Just a quick question... What should the next step be with this bow.

Should I:

A. Heat the bow and put some reflex in it

Or

B. Put it on the tillering stick and get some more bend into it that way?

Thanks for the push in the right direction

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

So I worked on my caul again and made a tillering tree/board like Semo's... Here are some pictures

 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure I would show you my stack of wood that is waiting to be turned into beautiful bows

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Dang you work fast! Great job man.    

Is that Hickory mixed in with the Osage?

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

I did a lot of work today... that is actually hackberry. I saw Jimmy Blackmon make a hackberry bow on youtube and I liked the wood so much I picked up two staves for cheap money.

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

I am looking to work on the bow tonight.

Was wondering since I have put reflex into the bow do I start on floor tillering some more or do I go straight to the tillering stick???

Thanks in advance for the guidence!!  

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

So here are some pictures of my bow with a long string on it. It is on the 14" peg. I tried to go to 17 to show more bend but it is super high draw still.

How does the bending look for the first go. Maybe right limb slightly more bend in it. The right has that hump in mid limb. Left seems kind of stiffer. I am waiting for my bow weight to come in so I can start stripping some more wood and not go under weight.

   
   
   

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

Ok, I got it to this point which I believe looks pretty even. I am at 17 inches but it is still a little strong. It seems that I need to wait now until my bow scale comes in to go any further. Or I need to go to a short string than the 74 inch. I made a 70 inch one and might try stringing the bow with that.

Here are some new pictures of the limbs so far

 

I drew a straight line with paint....
Looks like I am ready for a shorter string

[Llamma1]

It looks great man.I'm working on my first flat bow and I hope it turns out that nice.Good luck man.I really like your steam set up.If you don't mind I might barrow that idea.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Did you intend to run your fades right into the limb? I would work on the area circled in red and determine how long you want your handle to be and rasp in a fade. That way you will know where to stop with your sanding while tillering. Unless your making a bend in the handle bow? Is that what your gonna make, I don't remember if you ever said or not?
Sorry if I missed that somewhere.

Otherwise, your tiller looks nearly perfect so far. So other than that fade issue, I would keep working it down evenly with a palm sander until you hit your target wt. but I normally stop a couple pounds above target wt. because it seems to drop a pound or two during finish sanding and shooting in. Just my experience.
Keep up the good work!    

 

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Actually, before you hit that fade area with a rasp, lets get some more advice first. It may already be too thin there to add a fade? I'd hate to tell you to do something that turned out distasterous.

I'm sure some of the other guys will have some good advice on the fades for ya. Lets see what they have to say before working on those areas.

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

I will hold off on tillering until more people guide me. I thought that I was suppose to make the fades go into the bow but I will stop them there and tiller out a ways. I guess I screwed up on the handle area but if it is too thin I will continue with a bend through the handle bow for my first. I will have to see an example of someone elses flat bow to see whatyou mean.

The bow is still really heavy with poundage so I guess I can stop in that area and continue to work on the outer parts of the limbs....

SO confused  

[PEARL DRUMS]

It looks just dandy to me. Use your gizmo and start removing wood, stay off the last 8" or so of the tips, keep them stiff. Also, shorten your string up, it looks like your tips are moving alot already and that long string will fool your eye. Brace it an 1" or so above the handle and take another look at it. Pulling down and in changes everything compared to pull down only on a long string.

[Pat B]

She looks good to me. It is time for a short string at a low brace. This will tell you how the string tracks on the bow and you still have plenty of weight to make corrections if necessary.
  I like my fades to look like yours. I use a bulbous handle and it gives a smooth transition between the handle and working limbs. You can still have a stiff handle(or not) with this type of handle/fade area.
  So, if at low brace your limbs still look the same begin lengthening the draw(not to exceed the ultimate draw weight)and she'll be ready to shoot before you know it.

[George Tsoukalas]

Looks good. String it. Jawge

[bowhntineverythingnh03743]

Thanks guys for the kind words. I will make up a shorter string like 68 inches to brace it a little above the handle.

I keep praying that I am doing this whole bow building correctly. I am going to tread lightly while going and please stop by and check out the new steps.