First selfbow

[silent sniper]

Well guys, I finally made a selfbow, this is my first successful bow and so far has been shooting well.

This bow is around 68" long and is made from a piece of hickory I cut myself. It was my first time trying to cut and season bow wood, I ended up ruining most of my wood by not properly sealing it.

This piece did yield a bow, but it has small checks along the length of the limbs. I filled them with super glue, so we will see what happens.

The bow is in the 40# range I would guess. It shoots surprisingly nice, hardly any hand shock at all. I really enjoy shooting it and at 15 yards I am downright deadly accurate with it.

My tiller isn't the greatest, My lower limb looks to be bending too much out of the fade. I did my best to correct it. She has a little over 2" set when unstrung and around 1.5" set when rested.

Overall I am happy it has survived this far. I will dress it up with some stain and grip material and post some better pictures of it.

Let me know what you think, hows it look for my first? Any advice is appreciated. Thanks SS.

 

[LittleBen]

First let me say welcome to the addiction.

Second, you will find that you get the best feedback on the tiller if you post: 1) unbraced 2) braced and 3) full draw photos. This way we can see how the bow bends and we know what kind of lumps and bumps the stave had before bending.

Assuming your stave was very straight, then yes, the tiller on the bottom limb is not the greatest. The limb is hinged right out of the fades.
You could potentially keep tillering until it's not hinging anymore, and then shorten the bow by a couple inches to get the weight up a bit. If not that's ok but the bow will probably take a fair amount of set right at that spot.
 Eventually ever wood bow will fail, and always at the weakest spot. That bow WILL eventually fail at that hinge. It may be 1 more shot or 10,000, but when it breaks it will be that spot.

With that said, the top limb is looking very good, especially for a first bow. Maybe slightly stiff in the outer 1/2 of the top limb, but nothing to worry about.

I know you can tiller because the top limb is good, and I know you can judge tiller cause you noticed the hinge, so now it's a matter of taking the time to make sure the tiller is AS PERFECT AS POSSIBLE on all your future bows. Go slow, post pictures during tillering if your not sure, and help will be offered by many here.

Again, cheers and welcome to the bench.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Benny boy nailed it. I like the glasses, I wear them on occasion myself. I don't trust any wood bow until I've ran at least a few dozen through it. You cant build new eyes after a bow breaks.

[silent sniper]

Ben, Thanks for the advice. Looking at my picture it is quite obvious that longer limb needs some help.

I am going to try to work that fade and level that spot out. I will pry take an inch off of each limb as well.

I never intended to make a bow from this piece of wood. I started working it down simply to practice using my spokeshave.

But I will try my best to see what I can do with it. SS

[John Scifres]

I would try to get more bend close to the handle section.  It looks like it doesn't start bending until about 6" from the fade.

Green means go, red means stop.  

[takefive]

Congratulations on making your first bow!  Do you have a Gizmo for tillering?  It will show the weak and stiff spots in the limbs and help you get an even bend.  Make sure you round off the edges on the limbs as well.  
Sounds like your bow is a good shooter.  Enjoy!  

[Roy from Pa]

Make yourself one of these.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000075

[Eric Krewson]

Here is the latest version of the gizmo.

 http://tradgang.com/noncgi/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=125;t=001047#000000

[silent sniper]

Did some more work on the bow tonight. I worked over the fades as well as the stiff limb tip. I also used a straight piece of wood to run up and down the limbs to check for dips/humps.

Here are some pictures.

Unbraced:

4.75" brace

Full draw
 

How is she looking? Thanks SS

[takefive]

That looks way better    

[silent sniper]

Could i take 1"-1 1/2" off of each limb and still be ok?  The bow is in the 30 pound range right now.  SS.

[John Scifres]

I would guess that any gain in draw weight will be off-set by more follow but I would still give it a shot.  How wide is it?

[John Scifres]

Look at the unbraced photo.  There are 2 spots where your set is concentrated, midlimb on top and at that hinge neat the fade on the bottom.  Now compare to your braced photo and see where there is little bend outside of those areas.  Then look at the drawn photo and see that it confirms it, particularly on the upper past midlimb.  The lower limb actually looks pretty good past the hinge.

After you shorten the bow, mark the weak spots with a big "NO" and don't touch them again.  Get your tiller perfect on this one.  Your next one will be better.  I promise.

[Bison Bows]

I agree with John. Tiller this bow until its right even if you give up the draw weight you want. Use this bow as great experience on your next one. You are doing a great job for a first bow build. I have made hundreds and I can assure you that it is a learning experience on every one of them. Remember too that while Hickory has great strength in tension, it is not so good in compression and that is why the string follow. Sometime in the future try sinew backing a hickory stave and you will have a wonderful bow. Keep up the good work.

[LittleBen]

There's ben quite a few new Bowyers posting lately, and the issue of piking seems to come up frequently, probably because most first time Bowyers will miss their target weight.

Here are my general thoughts on piking.

If you have a bow which is perfectly tillered and taking very low set, and you want a few more pounds, piking may be the ticket.

If you have a bow that is not well tillered and you want more weight, you are screwed. Why? Because step one is to tiller it perfectly. By definition you will lose weight in the process. By the time you get that bow perfectly tillered, you will drop from 30lbs to maybe 25lbs. Then when you pike it you might get back to 30lbs if you're lucky, and you will still have to touch up the tiller a smidgen.

Piking is not an effective solution for fixing a poorly tillered and underweight bow, it is an effective solution for improving a well tillered and slightly overbuilt bow.

That's just my .02

So long story short, I think your tiller has improved a lot, but I also think there's more room for improvement. I think you could keep tillering, or pike it or both, but just be realistic about what you're going to get. And what you're going to get is experience, probably not a hunting bow.

Secondly, I might recommend a board bow for the next one cause it's cheap, and easier to learn to tiller on than a stave that's lumpy.

[Jomohr84]

For cutting and seasoning it yourself, that is a darn good first bow. You are learning very quickly. The knowledge these guys share is invaluable. If you can, pick up the traditional bowyer's bible, that is chock full of great info as well. If you can get a straight hickory board with some good straight grain, I've made some good bows with those. I learned a lot making my first bow, and moved on to the next, and with each one they get better and better. Keep up the good work and make another!

[Wolftrail]

Originally posted by PEARL DRUMS:
Benny boy nailed it. I like the glasses, I wear them on occasion myself. I don't trust any wood bow until I've ran at least a few dozen through it. You cant build new eyes after a bow breaks.

I usually wear glasses when I'm exercising the bow on the T-stick.  Once I get to full draw I dont bother if everything looks A-OK then I shoot it in.
I build lam bows and I check all glue lines with a magnifying glass this is the only way to let me know if I starved a glue joint or something.
And I re-check them after 300 shots, double check triple check.
I have glued up thousands of board feet of material in the last 10 years. Gluing is in my blood.