how to correct string follow or set

[Orkraider]

I just finished tillering my newest bow, and it's got about 3 1/4" of string follow, or set. This is a lot more than I expected.  It's a red oak board bow, 72", 70" nock to nock, just over 70# draw weight at 31 inches.

Is this fixable at this point? If so, how?

And more importantly, is it something to worry about? Do I just leave it, or try and correct it?

any suggestions greatly appreciated.

[Pappy]

Not much you can do now,was it dry or just problems with the tillering ? You might clamp it in reflex
and heat treat the belly,that might help some,most of the damage has been done.It won't hurt anything as long as it is pretty even set and not a hinge causing it.It takes away from the performance but they shoot pretty sweet with some string follow.
   Pappy

[Del the cat]

Like Pappy says...
Anything you do (short of sinew backing) is likely to pull back out (IMHO)
A bit of sting follow is fine, learn to love it especially in self bows...it just shows the wood is working hard>
Would you rather a bit of string follow or spontaneous dissassembly?
Del

[Pat B]

Not much you can do now. Over stressing and moisture are usually what causes set but wood choice for a specific bow style can also be a cause.  I think a more appropriate wood could have been used for a 70# bow although the 70" length should help to lessen the stress. What are the dimensions of your bow. Flat belly or radiused? 

[Orkraider]

It's the bow I posted here: http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,14929.0/topicseen.html

As I said, this is my second bow. I'm still learning, and I want to make my mistakes, accumulate my tools, and learn some skills, as cheaply as possible, as I'm frugal (or as my wife says, one cheap bastige, lol)

The board was a 6' 1" by 2" (dimensional) strip of red oak I got at menards for $4.39

The finished bow is 72" long, 70" notch to notch, it's an american flat bow. I've got it braced to 6.5". It's flat cross section all the way.

It's 1 1/2 inches wide at the fades, down to 5/8" at the notches. For thickness, it ended up at 5/8" at the fades, down to 1/2 inch.

the handle piece is 7 inches long, and the center of the bow hits right between my index and middle finger as I grip it. The narrow part of the handle is 1" wide, and 1 3/8 thick. I might take this down just a wee bit once I decide what type of wrap I want on it.  There's no arrow shelf cut into it, and so far I like it that way =)

The tiller looks as smooth as can be to my eye; at full draw, 31" at just over 70#, it's exactly what I was hoping for. I will see if I can dig up a camera after work and put some pictures up.

Basically, I'm very happy with it. The reason for the post is:

I'm planning on putting a cloth backing of some kind on it. Before I do that, and finish up with the sanding , finishing, and wrap, I was wondering if I should fret about this amount of set, and if there's any way to correct it.

If it's not going to have a huge impact on the performance of the bow, I can leave it as is; It doesn't look unappealing to me, it's just all the other nice bows I see on here don't have this much set.

Once again, thanks! This site, and you folks, have been invaluable for me as I get into this.

[George Tsoukalas]

How much set? Put the back of the bow up against the wall and measure the tip deflection on both and then take an average.  Sorry if I missed it. Jawge

[Orkraider]

3 1/4 inches exactly on each limb.

[yazoo]

red oak cannot handle 70 pounds at any length,, way to much stress for a weak wood,,lower poundage ,,  if you have trouble finding wood,,,talk to local farmers loggers wood workers,,find a small little hickory tree or limb doesnot need to be very big 6in will make 4 bows,,most people will give you one,,talk to tree trimmers,,, if you you ever come to tn, come to my house I will give you some osage and hickory,,,mike

[Orkraider]

well shoot, does that mean this bad boy is just trash?

If red oak can't handle 70#, I guess I could spike it and scrape it down to a lower draw weight?

[Pat B]

If it shoots OK just continue to shoot it. Set doesn't keep a bow from shooting, it keeps it from it's full potential.

[yazoo]

yes string follow makes a bow shoot sweet,, I think some of the old hill bows had bulit in set,,

[George Tsoukalas]

Well you have a long draw and it was rather narrow for the weight and draw. I'm confused by that. You said 1 x 2 dimensional so that means it is actually 1.5 in wide.  The straightness of the grain on the board determines how heavy a weight you can get from it safely. Anyway, enjoy your bow. Nothing you an do now. More on my site. jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

[PeteC]

 Hey orkraider, "set", is the collapse of the cells in the belly wood. There is really not much you can do on this bow so just shoot it.On your next whitewood bow you might consider heat treating the belly to stand up to your long draw lenght.You can build a simple form out of a 2  X 6.Then, when you have your stave tillered evenly out to what would be your target brace height,heat treat the belly and clamp it into reflex as you treat it.After it cools,you will take it off the form in a nice even reflex.Give the stave 3 days to equalize with the air humidity level,(per Marc St. Louis)then resume tillering.If you take your time and keep the tiller even,you'll end up with very little set,possibly even a little reflex. If any questions just ask. God Bless

[Badger]

   If the bow were bending through the handle I would say 70# would be fine with those demensions. I think with a stiff handle you just asked a bit too much from the wood. be proud it didn't break on you. Usually if wood is dry it is pretty close to breaking by the time you have that much set. If I were to apply my mass principle to that bow I would be looking for about 27 to 28 oz mass weight for dry wood. If you have that much mass your wood may be too high in moisture, but I suspect you are down around 23 oz. Steve

[Orkraider]

well I just got home from work, and I have to say, I've been waiting all day to come home and see what you all have had to say.

As usual, I'm really impressed. I learn so much from just about every post I come across on here, and some of the best stuff is learning the words for the things I just plain need to go research.

Badger, Pete, Pat, and Yazoo, you've all given me a lot to thing about.

George, I already found my way to your site, and not only did I bookmark it, but I put a button for it on my quick links bar at the top of my browser window. Dude, you should write a book, I for one, would buy a copy.

I'm going to continue with this bow. I'm going to be putting some finish on it tomorrow, as well as a backing. For a backing, I'm either going to be using 3 layers of drywall tape in a wood glue matrix, or burlap, or silk, depending on what I can find at the thrift store.

If this bad boy breaks, and I'm sure it will eventually, it's going to go up on the wall with the remains of the first one I broke.  I've resolved to look at each broken bow as a success, as I'm learning a heck of a lot in the doing.

Once I get this finished and purtified to the point where I"m satisfied with it, I'm going to shoot the heck out of it and see what happens. Then I'm going to start on my next bow while I keep shooting this one.

Yesterday, I did lob a couple arrows towards the river (I'm lucky enough to live right on the banks of the mighty Mississippi), and as far as I and my neighbor could tell, the range was farther than we could see; we were both like "ok, where did the arrow go?"

I have some goals and ideas for bow #3. I want to do another board bow, I want to keep the length at 72" with a nock to nock distance of 70", and I want a draw length of 31" and a draw weight of 70 - 75 pounds.

I'm going to spending some time tomorrow looking for what I can find as far as how thick and wide the board should be, and what kinds of board wood would be suitable for a bow with this draw weight.

Once again, thanks to all of you, and I'm so glad I found my way here. =)

Riley