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Building the Vine Maple Bow - Finished

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Gordon:
Now I'm ready to brace the bow for the first time. Not surprisingly the limbs do not bend evenly when the bow is brought to brace. The top limb is stronger than the bottom. Using a rasp and file I remove wood evenly along the top limb until the limbs balance out.





Now that the limbs are bending evenly I sight down the string to check the string alignment and I am delighted to see that the string bisects the center of the handle perfectly! So no further adjustments to alignment are necessary.



And here she is. I'm now ready to turn this girl into a real bow.




Next up - shaping the handle

simson:
Thanks again Gordon, you're doing a great job here. Very good info and pics.
Can't wait to see how you tiller this babe out, esp. top limb with the wiggles in it.

Gordon:
Thank you for the nice words Simon. I have to take special care around the dog-leg on the upper limb. A dog-leg is a common feature of vine maple and is prone to failure unless you leave it a little stiff. But you have to allow it to bend a little or the surrounding area will be over-stressed. It is a tricky balancing act.

Cloudfeather:
Coming along great, Gordon! I love the last picture, "Yea, it's a bow. Wanna fight about it?" Lol

Danzn Bar:
Who needs a tillering tree  :) ;).....really appreciate the way you tiller with saw horses and a vice.   8) :) very interesting I can see me trying that on the next one.
Thanks
DBar

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