Main Discussion Area > English Warbow
Australian-grown English elm "war" bow
FilipT:
Cool bow. Not many healthy elms here. How was the bow finished in such short time?
WillS:
That's just how I make them. I don't like having bows on the tiller for more than 30 mins max, as you don't need to do it. If your tapers and dimensions are accurate and balanced there's no reason to keep drawing a bow on the wall to see if there are any mistakes.
All the hard work is done before it's bending - all the roughing out, sanding, scraping and cleaning up, all the nock work, polishing etc. Once all that's done, it's braced at full height and that's when you can see 90% of any issues - weak spots, stiff spots, unbalance etc. You don't need to draw it on a long string over and over again to see that.
Bob W.:
Excellent job Wills, tiller looks great!
FilipT:
That is completely unfamiliar to me. I have never got stave / sapling that had behaved remotely good at first at tiller. I do my tapers, layouts and what not with calipers and AutoCAD and still bow is at first giving me lots of headache.
That is why I need long string as I do hours of tillering for the preparing bow just for the brace. After that it goes really easily and without much to do, but until brace its complete hell.
WillS:
Calipers and computers are great if you're working with something that doesn't vary. Wood varies.
You need to be able to look at a stave and see where the finished bow will be thicker or thinner, without having to bend it to find out.
Even on a really characterful stave you should be able to brace straight away. If one limb is completely wrong or looks dangerous at brace then the roughing out wasn't done properly.
If you look at a really crazy, swooping, twisted bow unbraced the bow will make sense. The thick spots and thin spots will have a reason for existing.
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