my first Black Locust bow

[Zugul]

So, I'll tell you all the story behind this piece of wood. Even if this is only my third bow I wanted to get miself into a personal challenge, trying to get a functioning bow out of a bad stave. Since I did not want to wait for the wood to season I searched for a dead standing BL tree. I found one that seemed decent, cut it down and started debarking it. it was absolutely SOAKING WET, so I let it dry for a few weeks.  After that I removed the sapwood, and found out woodworm traces in the first few growth rings of heartwood, so I chased a growthring below them. Then I layed out the bow and got the stave near final width dimensions. The wood was still too wet to even think about bending it, so I took the stave inside my house to make it dry faster. After 3 weeks a few drying checks appeared on the back of the stave. When it stopped loosing moisture I tried to chase  a cuple rings deeper to try taking them out, but the cracks were pretty deep and I ended up only reducing them in width and lenght. FInally I started tillering the bow, but I made lots of mistakes that made it develope frets on the belly. At the end, I can say I've got a bow, not a good one but one that teached me a lot of things: 1) If you can, start with a good stave. 2)don't make the wood dry too fast. 2) take pics during the tillering process and look at them to figure out where the limbs are bending too much. 3) take your time, don't rush. 4) If you're not sure about your tillering skills make the bow a bit longer.
now it's lime for some pics and some specs!

the bow is a pyramid style bow, 63 3/4" ntn, 65" ttt. It has a 4" long non bending handle with 2" long and wide fades with a straight taper to 3/4" tips. It weights 17.1 oz and it pulls 39# at 28", even after 150+ shots. It's been finished with 2 coats of boiled linseed oil.

1 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

2 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

3 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

4 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

[Zugul]

a few more!

5 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

7 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

8 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

and finally one on the tillering tree, at full draw

IMG_20210225_150811587 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

[Yooper Bowyer]

It looks like you did a nice job chasing a ring, that is one task I have yet to accomplish.

[eastcreekarchery]

Awesome work zugul!!

[Will B]

Looks like a nice bow. You learned a lot from that black locust stave. Well done!

[Allyn T]

Great job zugul I'm glad you bested your challenge

[M2A]

I hope you got some more of that wood when you was out. Sure looks like some nice stuff! Tiller looks pretty good to my eyes, I think 66 or even 68"ntn would have helped against the frets at a 28" draw, but you work with what you got
Mike   

[Zugul]

Thanks everyone for your kind words! I'm getting more and more passionate about bowmaking everyday, thanks to you beautiful people!
Mike: that's exactly what I was thinking for my next BL bow, 68" ntn with maybe an arrow shelf. This time I have a lot better quality wood, with a bit wider growth rings and no wood worms... The only problem is it has to season, I harvested it on 1/8/2021

[bownarra]

Nice bow and b.locust is one of the best woods for teaching you how to tiller No question! It's also a superb wood when you get it right.
You can rough out the staves, chase a ring then seal the backs. Get to a stiff floor tiller then set them aside to dry. You will be working dry wood much quicker with little risk of damaging it. Remember to leave the handle section full width and the tips at least 1 1/2" wide and seal the backs! Watered down pva glue is good and cheap.

[George Tsoukalas]

Th tiller looks great. If the frets are spread out over the limbs and not concentrated it is a design issue...too short... too narrow.

If localized it is a tiller issue but your tiller looks great.

Jawge

[Zugul]

Thanks! I didn't know about using diluited pva glue as a sealer, this is a game changer! In the next days I'll start working on a stave for sure!
The frets are concentrated from 2" out of the fades to mid limbs. After watching for like 50 times at the tiller pic I think I can see that the inner 1/2 of each limb is bending too much, while the outer 1/2 is making little to no work. I did not see it before probably due to the irregular shape of the limbs. Anyway this is still my best tillered bow until now, and considered how bad of a stave it was I feel good about how it turned out... But I won't be really satisfied until I manage to make a very good bow, fast shooting, with no hand shok, no frets and little to no set. I know it's going to be a very long way until I get there, but I have time 

here some pics of the fretted areas
_MG_5135 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr
_MG_5136 by Mattia Zuccolo, su Flickr

[Bryce]

  very well done. Locust is such a nice material to work. kudos

   Bryce

[BoltBows]

For a third bow this is really nice work Mattia.
I'd say: Be happy and shoot it while thinking of your next bow

Jaap

[scp]

Tiller looks good enough to me. It might be just a little narrow at the fades. Many people keep the width same for the inner 1/3 of working limbs. I would heat treat the belly and see if the frets can be sanded off with out losing any draw weight.

[Yooper Bowyer]

2" out of the fades to mid limbs.

  That's not so bad then.  Spread out frets are generally a sign of overstraining a section, not just a local spot, so it's not like there is a single weak link.