First bow and an elm

[vtbow]

Then I chopped out the belly side some, and put paraffin on the ends:


About this time my in-laws arrived, and we had better uses for the picnic table!

[DC]

Coat the back with something soon! I use shellac.

[vtbow]

Thanks DC!
Shellaced.

[vtbow]

Working a little more on the blank today:

[Ryan C]

Make sure you stap it to a board when it starts bending a bit.

[vtbow]

Okay, will do, thanks Ryan.

I worked on it a little more today before dinner:






I hit the whole bow with a paper towel moistened with shellac after. Hoping that will equalize the moisture overnight.

[vtbow]

I'm holding off working on my black birch bow until it's about 10%. It was 25% moisture content a couple days ago and is dropping about 3% a day so far.

A question while waiting..... I also have big leaf linden trees -- also called basswood. Very light and dries straight. I imagine it isn't used for bows, but can it be used for arrows?

[vtbow]

The birch sapling bow blank is at about 14% moisture and going down a lot more slowly.

So today I decided to work on the birch board I'd salvaged. That will make it my first bow. It's about 10% moisture content, but looking at it closely it had a hook in the grain at 54". It was probably near a knot off the board. The grain turned and came right out the back, so I didn't think there was any other choice but cut it out and shorten the bow to 54". The rest of the grain was absolutely straight and even, perfect really.

I'm kind of discouraged because this does seem really very short, and I have a 29" draw. It doesn't need to be a hunting bow, so could be about 40 lbs draw, but I don't know if that is even asking too much of it. I don't have sinew, rawhide for backing. I do have silk if needed.

But I'm kind of tempted not to back it, just because I'm curious to see how black birch does as an experiment. How far it will go tillering without breaking. If I back it then I might not know.

Right now it is quite heavy and stiff. The limbs taper fron 3/4" thick to 3/8" thick at the tips. Just trying to floor tiller it before scraping, it doesn't bend much at all. Without experience, I don't have anything to compare it to. It is acting like the specs on black birch say -- very stiff, and fairly heavy.  I haven't started tillering. I'll use a pulley and long line to keep clear of it.

Any suggestions at this point are welcome.

If it breaks, I promise not to be too disappointed! I think of it as an experiment.

[vtbow]

I set up for a first try at tillering against the side of the barn. I'm pretty slow at it -- I spent half of the day just getting it to 15" from flat with a taught bowstring, and that's about 30 lbs. The limbs are quite a bit thinner now. I'm just wondering how it will ever get to 24" from here, not to mention 29". How thin can limbs get?

[Badly Bent]

Shoot for your draw weight at 24", maybe 27" if its a bendy handle. 29" draw out of that length is asking way too much of the bow in my opinion.

[vtbow]

Okay, bb --

Can I just trim the handle down to get it bendy?

Right now handle is 1" wide by 1-1/2" deep and 4" long.
it's a 3/4" riser on a 3/4" full board thickness. Should I take the riser off?

Limbs are 7/16" thick at fades and  1-5/8" wide.   And 1/4" thick, 1/2" wide at nocks

[vtbow]

Maybe answering my own question.....

Looks like (from the bow on Jawge's site) with a bendy handle the bow is full width through the handle area. So I can't convert this bow to a bendy handle, since the handle area has been narrowed to 1" wide...

[vtbow]

If I go to a child's bow with this, I could give it to my daughter. That would be a 15# at 22" for her. I guess that would make more sense. But how do I get it that low a draw weight?

Should I narrow the limbs at the fades a little?

[vtbow]

Well, with no answers to my newbie questions, I've just forged ahead --- or backed up actually. I went back to a long string. and gradually worked the limbs down to 20# at 10" of draw, then short brace it and creeped down in weight and up in draw.

Finally full braced it at my daughter's fistmele (hope I got that right) and worked it down to 18# at 21" which is her draw length. She tried it out and 18# is still a strain for her -- target weight was 15#. So one more newbie question: should I work it down further to 15# exactly, or should I leave it at this weight and assume it will lose a little in final sanding and more use? What do you think -- anybody reading this?

ps. I did exercise it 30 times every time I scraped the belly wood down a little.


Braced.



Tillered 18# @ 21" so far.

[son of massey]

As far as reducing weight further, that is your call. If it is much of a strain and is your daughter's only bow I would reduce it down personally, it is easier to work with kids on form and consistency when they are not really struggling to draw the bow. That said though the bow will lose some weight with final sanding and shooting in, so how much lower you go is up to you.

SOM