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Hazel dimensions

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Lucasade:
I took the thickness down last night:





I used the thickness measurements for a 90lb bow on the Norwegian Warbow site, which I thought would be a good starting point (31mm in the centre, 12mm at the nocks) as I am aiming for less than that. It has started bending on a floor tiller. It's now been weighed and put on top of my wardrobe to finish seasoning.

At the moment one limb is 1" longer than the other, which has all the reflex. I'm intending the longer limb to be the upper one but would it be better for the reflexed limb to be the top one? Or doesn't it matter?

I also noticed a couple of potential problem areas on the belly which I would appreciate any advice on please:





The intention is to heat treat the belly, which presumably is best done mid way through tillering so that I don't just scrape off all the heat treated layer?

Oh, and I've sorted my shave horse problem too...

Del the cat:
I'd probably the problem areas for now as they look pretty minor.
The small knot on the belly can maybe be picked out if there is loose stuff, but no point until after heat treat.
Yes, with heat treating, get it flexing to maybe half draw first.
Put the middle in the middle, don't over think it or just ignore the 1" difference... it hardly matters on a bow that long.
Similarly don't define which limb is which until it's 90% finished. I've flipped several bows quite late in the build, and some have been flipped one way then back again.
I once had Robert Hardy tell me by bow was 'upside down' because the lower limb looked weak. I popped off the string and showed him it was just natural deflex... you can make up your own mind. But bear in mind the lower limb is usually a bit shorter and thus it has to bend tighter, if it starts reflexed relative to the top limb, then it's having to bend even tighter still. So my bow may have look odd, but the lower limb wasn't over stressed.
If you want to match the limbs a bit better, then during heat treat, you could take out the slight reflex, or add a bit to the other limb.
Del

Lucasade:
Sounds like I may have been over analysing - I was thinking lower limb needs to be stiffer therefore use the shorter one. I'll wait and see what happens during heat treating!

Del the cat:

--- Quote from: Lucasade on January 23, 2015, 05:48:16 am ---Sounds like I may have been over analysing - I was thinking lower limb needs to be stiffer therefore use the shorter one. I'll wait and see what happens during heat treating!

--- End quote ---
Yeah, sound like you had it arse about face.
If the arrow pass is 1" above true centre (which is typical) and the grip is 4" long that gives 3" of grip below the centre and 1" (plus a bit for the arrow above centre. So the lower limb is automatically  2" shorter than the upper.
But there are no hard and fast rules, you can shift the grip and arrow pass to give the best tiller and smoothest shot. It makes most difference on short bows. But just reversing the bow on the tiller can make it look better (or worse!)
Del

Lucasade:
Okay that makes sense - thank you.

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