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First Self Bow Help

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WackEM:
New on here and this is mostly new to me. Was big into archery (compound) about 5 years ago but now I started a new venture. I’ve been working on a hickory self bow that has been a long time bucket list of mine. Anyhow I’m almost at the finishing point but I have a couple of problems I’d like to see if I can get some answers to. 1) I have a slight limb twist at the tip that I don’t know how to fix or if I should even mess with it. I think it was caused by a pin knot that I didn’t even know was there until I started tillering and I might have shaved off to much on one side. This piece of wood is not a good one to start my first bow but it’s all I could find at the time. I learned when I would shave across one of the knots the card scraper would catch and bounce and dig in and leave a uneven spot. The bow is 62” or 60” from notch to notch and tillered to 55# at 27”. Anyhow leave it alone or try to fix? If fix any ideas?

2) It’s a symmetrical bow and I was wanting to make one certain limb the top limb for a couple reasons A) The limb I was wanting to make the bottom limb has a knot at the fade that I left wood around by following the grain and it will somewhat impede my vision a little. B) The string is closer to the one side , I think due to the slight limb twist, and if it’s the bottom limb it will put the arrow more inline. The problem is the limb I wanted to be the btm tillered at even or maybe 1/16” negative and it is wider and thicker than the limb I wanted to be the top. Really don’t want to take more off the thinner limb. I think that limb had a little natural reflex at the start. I’ve heard that if you shoot 3 under even tiller is okay. Any help appreciated I just want to get this thing finished and find a better stave to start a new one. I’ll post pics if I can figure out how haha. Sorry for the long post. Thanks.

Kidder:
Welcome! Assuming you haven’t recurved the tips a little twist is usually a non issue. Just so long the string isn’t at risk of slipping off you should be ok. If you decide you want to fix it you will need to heat correct it. Should not be difficult as you will be thin enough. As for top or bottom limb - try shooting it both ways and see how it feels. If you are negative tillered take a couple scrapes off the top limb and you’ll be there. Good luck!

WackEM:
Thank you. The twist is very slight. It starts about 10” from the tip where there is a pin knot on the edge so I was kinda afraid to try to heat it and twist it back with that knot being right where I’d be twisting. As far as scraping more off the limb to make it positive tiller I’ve been doing that but it just seems like it’s not reacting and it’s already thinner than the other limb. It actually looks like it’s the weaker limb when drawing it on the tiller tree but I might try it again. I wish I could figure out how to post pictures but I’m pretty dumb when it comes to technology. Thanks again for the reply

Del the cat:
The twist is probably best ignored.
The limb, you want to be the bottom, and the limb that the stave wants to be the bottom are often not the same.
I've often turned a bow up the way during tillering. With out pictures it's hard to offer more advice... but I'd guess that the bow probably has plenty of extra handle section that would allow it to be turned over... and don't worry if you end up with the lower limb longer than the upper, one of my sweetest bows has the lower limb longer.
If it is a shooter now, maybe leave it alone and come back to it after some time, or after you've made some more and got more experience.
A bow is rarely ever entirely finished!
Del

WackEM:
I did put the handle in the middle ( symmetrical ) for that reason but that big knot gets on my nerves looking at it haha. But like you said the bow is fighting me on this one and I might just let it win. I like the character of the knots just not in my line of sight. I know I could have been done with this thing a week ago but I keep messing with it and I’m afraid I’m going to screw it up the more I mess with it. Thanks for the help and advice.

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