Need some advice on Hickory board bow

[30coupe]

I am in the final stages on a hickory board bow...I think. I have a couple questions.

First, the easy one. I backed the bow with an old silk tie that my wife bought for me (I thought it was ugly, but didn't let her know). I was planning to paint the back black, so the color of the tie didn't matter. However, now that it's on the bow, I'm kind of thinking it's a pretty nice camo effect. What do you think, keep it as is or paint it?

 

 

Now for the hard part. The bow has taken a little over two inches of set. Is this par for a hickory bow? The bow shoots pretty well, although I've only shot about a dozen arrows at 5 yards through it so far.

The bow is a pyramid, 1 1/5" at the fades to 1/2" at the tips; 68" overall, about 66 1/2" nock to nock. It draws 47# @ 27" right now. That's what I was trying to hit. I imagine it will lose some weight over time. I can live with that. I hope it stays over 40# then I'll be happy.

Anyway, do I build a caul and heat it up before I put the finish on or live with the set, finish it and shoot it? If I heat it and bend in some reflex, will it eventually go back to where it is now? Does the heat strengthen the bow, in other words add draw weight or at least maintain it?

Here are some shots of the bow unbraced:

 

 

And the tips:

 

 

Sorry, no braced or full draw pics at the moment. I'm waiting for the stain to dry.

I'm hoping this will be my first all wood bow that survives...for a while at least.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Ryan Yoon]

That amount of set is to be expected because of your design. Less set would be taken if the bow was wider. In my experience heat treating can reduce set but I wouldn't expect to lose all of it with the design you have.

[30coupe]

The design was dictated by the board. It had the best grain of any Menards had at the time, but it was just a 1x2. The 1x4s were crappy and I would still only get one bow out of one. Since making this one wider is obviously not an option, I may have to give heat a try or live with it. The board was $4.59 and the riser pieces were some scraps from other projects. The tie was headed to Goodwill, so I don't have a lot of money in the bow.

It shoots, the tiller looks pretty good, and the timing is really good, which means almost no hand shock. Not bad for under ten bucks.

[razorback]

Coupe, tie looks great. I would leave it alone unless if when the wife sees it things are likely to go bad  

Next I would leave it alone and call it done. 2" of set is not too bad, especially with the design, and if it shoots well keep it that way. Most advise on here says to leave set alone, fiing it only hides the stresses that don't go away. Call it a success and shoot for an $8 bow on the next one.  

[30coupe]

quote:Originally posted by razorback:
Coupe, tie looks great. I would leave it alone unless if when the wife sees it things are likely to go bad    

Next I would leave it alone and call it done. 2" of set is not too bad, especially with the design, and if it shoots well keep it that way. Most advise on here says to leave set alone, fiing it only hides the stresses that don't go away. Call it a success and shoot for an $8 bow on the next one.  

I had kind of decided to just slap some finish on it and call it good. I looked through the hickory and oak again an Menards this afternoon, but I'm going to have to wait for another shipment of boards to find anything worth using. Their hickory is called select, which means they could care less about grain as long as the knots don't fall out. Even the wider stuff was junk as far as bows go. I found one oak 1 x 6 that would have made a couple bows, but it was a 10 footer, so too pricey for board bow materials.

I may try to find some ipe for the next one, even if I have to order it from the online auction. Anyone know of a good, cheap source of ipe? I'm attracted to it because I like my longbows narrow, like...well, longbows!

This bow came out pretty well considering what I had to work with. I was going to do a parallel limb, starting the tapers at mid-limb, since it was just a 1x2, but after I got it home and got the plastic wrap off, I could see that one end was warped sideways. Fortunately, it was not twisted and the grain was pretty straight, so I just used the warp as half of the taper on a narrow pyramid design, drew a line through the center, and cut one side of one limb and both sides of the other, if you know what I mean. I figured if I tried to straighten the warped end, it would just want to come back after I had it shaped and started to put stress on it with the string, which would have thrown my string out of alignment. As it is now, the string runs right down the center, the tips draw back nice and straight, and smooth. Might just as well shoot it till it either breaks or loses so much cast the arrows won't clear the riser.

   

[JJB]

Looks good Russ, I like the look of the tie on there.  Great job!
-Jay

[mwosborn]

I like the tie!  Bow looks nice too.

I agree with the others - shoot her as is and live with the set.  You gained great experinece and as you indicated little money invested.

Maybe someday you will get a wild hair and decide to heat her up and re-back it with sinew - never know.

[KellyG]

Man I would shoot the heck out of that bow. Yall have not read much by some of the ole archers have you. I think it was hill who preferred set in his bows.

Leave it un painted to from what I can see.

Have fun on the next one.

[30coupe]

Originally posted by KellyG:
Man I would shoot the heck out of that bow. Yall have not read much by some of the ole archers have you. I think it was hill who preferred set in his bows.

Leave it un painted to from what I can see.

Have fun on the next one.

Kelly, I have read that. Hill thought string follow bows were more accurate. I have a NM Shelton that is built as a string follow bow. I am hoping the set in this bow is about where it will stay, so I can call it string follow. I'm afraid it may just keep compressing though. As long as it doesn't lose too much cast, I can live with the string follow.

I fully intend to shoot the heck out of it. I'm in the finishing process now, so no shooting for a while but soon...very soon!

No matter how long it lasts, it has been a fun venture.