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Tillering warbow with reflex
Yeomanbowman:
A few thinks to look at.
1. Did you taper the width from the handle section? If so it can affect stability. Better to start these tapers a bit further down the limb or go for 2 tapers. With the nocks 20mm wide it doesn't sound like the limbs are too narrow.
2. It sounds like your ash is too damp. Keep it inside between the times you are working on it. Some bowyers don't even let ash bows rehydrate after heat treatment.
3. Was your bow too rounded in the belly as well?
4. You may be able to rescue matters by heating the bow and bending against the direction of the cast.
Jeremy
WillS:
Hi Jeremy!
1. I did sort of follow the MR bow tapers, in that the centre 20 inches or so is pretty much parallel, tapering once towards the tips, and the goal was to taper again the last few inches to the 15mm nocks once the bow was 90% tillered
2. The ash is a good few years old, and always kept inside. Not near heat especially, but somewhere warm and dry. I would love to blame it on the wood instead of my poor skills, but I think in this case it's all me!
3. The bow was almost square, instead of the traditional D section. I know that ash is tension strong, so the belly needs to be far flatter than a traditional yew longbow in order to avoid set
4. I'm gonna have to heat this, but I was really hoping not to! On the Warbow Wales website is a record breaking ash warbow with very similar dimensions to mine that hasn't been heat treated or reflexed at all. I end up having to heat treat every bow I make to rescue or avoid string follow and each time I start a new one I aim to avoid needing to do it.
WillS:
This is the bow I was following as inspiration
http://warbowwales.com/#/welsh-ash-record-bow/4562210258
adb:
Did you notice at the bottom of the description? No reflex or heat treatment.
WillS:
Yep, that's why I don't want to resort to using heat. It's clearly possible to make a heavy ash warbow without it! I assume they mean there was no added reflex.
I wonder if I'm trying to run before I can walk. I've only made a few bows. Would you say a heavy bow is harder to make than lighter bows? Perhaps I should stick to bows around 50# until I've got the basics down?
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