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Advice on hickory/tigerwood warbow tiller
ScottRoush:
Hi folks.. I think this is my first post on here. It's been a while since I've done any bowyering but I've lately decided that I need a heavy draw English longbow. I have 10 bows under my belt.. mostly r/d bamboo backed ipe or tigerwood and one beautiful shooting osage self bow. But no experience with D profiles or full circle tiller.
My current project is 78 inches long with 1/4" hickory backing and tigerwood belly. At least I THINK it's tigerwood.. as it has a more reddish cast to it than ipe. I bought the board from local builder's supply and it was left over from a decking project. I've made other very nice bows from the same board.
Anyway... the main issue is that I've followed some layout plans for Mary Rose warbows in the 100-120 pound class in terms of thickness and profile taper. But... I've never tillered a D-shape profile before and am wondering how I should proceed. Right now the outer limbs are moving and am just starting to see some movement through the grip. But I simply can't brace it to move to short string tillering. Even two of us couldn't do it using a stringer. Still way too heavy despite being pretty close to published dimensions. I believe the issue is that I have not removed enough wood to complete a rounded profile of the belly. Here is where I am:
Anyway.. I don't want to blow this as I don't have a lot of time for fun stuff like this any more. I also have a Pacific yew stave on the way and I want to get a better understanding of D-profile tillering before I move on to that. My assumption is that I probably just need to remove wood just beyond the grip and leave the outer limbs alone.
Also..these are some measurements I took along one 38" limb starting with center (measurement in inches)-- Thickness: 1.04, 1.03, 0.97, 0.91, 0.89, 0.82, 0.71, 0.54 Width: 1.38, 1.36, 1.32, 1.22, 1.12, 1.02, 0.8, 0.56 The first 4 measurements were spaced about 4 inches and then the spacing went up from there.
Any advice???
edit: It has just recently occurred to me that the rough dimensions were taken from self bow designs rather than backed/tropical hardwood. So.... I'm assuming those numbers are too hefty for my project....
WillS:
I won't comment on where you should go from here as I've never worked with laminated bows, but using dimensions taken from European yew warbows won't work on laminated warbows. You can't even use the Mary Rose dimensions on American yew as it has quite different properties. You also have to change the shape of both belly and back as using a Mary Rose cross section won't work either. At least, that's my understanding of it.
For a laminated hardwood bow with the same draw weight you're going to end up a good amount smaller in terms of physical dimensions and mass than a European yew self bow.
That doesn't help much now, I know! I would get a copy of Making A Laminated English Warbow DVD if it were me, as all the dimensions and every aspect of shaping and tillering is featured on there. Or wait for somebody who knows what they're doing to help out!
ScottRoush:
Thank you WillS... Yes. That is what occurred to me and I don't know what I was thinking from the beginning. As I alluded to.. It's been about three years since I've done any bow making and I just wasn't using my head.
I think though.. at this point, dimensions aside, I need some help on bowyering circle tiller d-shape. But.. I believe my next step is going to be removing some wood in just beyond the grip and see how things go from there.
I started this project as practice for a Pacific yew stave that I have coming.. but in retrospect it might not really help! Although I'm hoping the general principles involved with D-shape tillering and full compass would still be the same...
WillS:
Well.... If it was me, I'd leave everything and pull it further. You don't want the middle moving any more yet, the middle only wants to start moving towards the end of the draw. It looks fairly even so take it further and see what happens. What's the draw weight as it is now, and what's the goal draw weight?
ScottRoush:
I'm shooting for 100 - 110. I don't know what the draw is.. I don't have a scale anymore. But I just started cutting a 2x4 to sit on a regular bathroom scale. I have a feeling it is over 200 right now. :-) I can't even come close to bracing it.
I just too fairly uniform amount of material from the bottom and rounded the belly more. It is now starting to behave like a bow within human capabilities.
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