Hand Made Bow

[LeeNY]

I never thought of that (coals). The heat here is a few degrees cooler 96 but been a burn ban also. Had to cancel the family bonfire.  :(

[John Scifres]

I guess I could just just leave it outside strapped to a caul and let the high temps do it for me    

Hmmm, maybe a solar oven.  I'm kinda serious.  I have some plexiglas and an old heatbox.  Wouldn't even be hard.  I think I even have some black paint I could use.  Great idea Lee, thanks!

[red hill]

John, the solar oven will probably work. I've seen students bake cakes in cardboard boxes lined with aluminum foil and covered with transparent plastic wrap.

[Dan Landis]

Looking good John!!  Great build along also...Dan

[Red Tailed Hawk]

Looking real good. Great how you showed each step after each scraping.

Thanks for posting

[Osagetree]

Getting back to the basics with hand tools. To me it is the most rewarding bow making there is.

I was bragging on your movie bows just yesterday to my coworkers.  

Good to see you getting the hand tools and kids involved in the yellerwood.

[George Tsoukalas]

I see the problem spot, John. I think a few scrapes above it would fix it.  Jawge

[LeeNY]

John, that would make it a solar bow. I'll be invoicing you the consult fee! LOL  

[Eric Krewson]

I would start working the fade on the top limb to try to eliminate the weak spot.

[John Scifres]

Thanks all.  I'm still pondering the solar oven.  Might be fun to try but I'm kind of afraid to step outside.  It was 97 degrees last night at 10:20!

The string hits the handle so I doubt I'll do any correcting at any rate.

[John Scifres]

Here's where we are after getting the fade down like Eric recommended plus taking 10 scrapes off the bottom.

 

Rounding out some.  But let's try 10 scrapes in the fade and 10 more on the bottom.

 

Better yet.  The weak spot is fading.  Lower limb is still a bit too strong for me.  10 more there.

 

Still needs some on the lower limb.

 

I think I'll stop there and shoot her in some and then see where we are.

[John Scifres]

First 5 shots.  #s 4 and 5 are in the plate.
   

Lower limb is still too stiff.  20 scrapes, full-length.

   

Still needs a touch.  10 more.

   

That's getting really close.  What say ye?

[John Scifres]

Here's a cool digital overlay of the limbs to gauge tiller.  

 

Upper limb is on the bottom here.  Looks pretty good except a little stiff midlimb on the upper limb.
 
I decided to lose my no power tools certification and went ahead with the heat gun to correct the side to side.  I am also a little light so I went ahead and toasted the belly to see if I can recover 5 pounds or so.  

 

 


In light of the heat, I sprayed it down with some water to keep it from drying out too bad.

 

p.s. The water is not really "soapy".  In case you were wondering  

[Jomohr84]

Very nice, It's been fun watching this progress the past couple days!

[Eric Krewson]

You worked wonders on that weak spot in the upper limb, looks just fine now.

[George Tsoukalas]

John, looks great! Jawge

[John Scifres]

Thanks guys.  

In the interest of never leaving well-enough alone, I decided to flip the tips on this thing too.

 

 

 

I'll give it a few days to rehydrate and then see what the tiller looks like.  Thanks for watchin'.

[KellyG]

John that looks like a sweet bow. How did the movie bow come out?

[KellyG]

John that looks like a sweet bow. How did the movie bow come out?

[Red Tailed Hawk]

Looks great, I would be smiling to