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First Self Bow Help

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superdav95:
It tough sometimes to call it done.  We all have this problem.   Welcome to the forum and congrats on getting this far with your hickory bow.  I have fought with natural wood bows to impose my will on them and won at times and other times have lost.  For your first bow I would call it a win and shoot it the way it wants to be shot and call it good.  You could do some heat correction and twist removal but that may cause some problems for you with the knot you mentioned.  The natural reflex in the one limb can throw you off with tiller too. The possible solution to this could be a mild to moderate heat treatment of the bow limbs while while clamped to a reflex form.  Certainly not not necessary but could help with evening out your limbs a bit.  There’s lots of info on this out there but essentially you are compressing and stiffening up the belly wood and driving out moisture.  Best of luck on you decision and either way you’ll use what you learn on this one for the next build. 

WackEM:
Thank you and I’m glad I’m not the only one that wants to get this bow perfect haha. I do have a little OCD but I think I’m going to call this one while it’s still shootable. Every time I think I’m done I find something else that bothers me. Like you said though I’ve learned a lot on this one. I hope the next stave or sapling I start with is cleaner than this one. I didn’t mention but I have already done a heat gun heat treat on a back set form back at rough in stage. I guess the limb with the natural reflex just took more I don’t know. Anyhow thanks again for the help. I did learn that when measuring the tiller with a long string the side of the string with the knot will cause a different result well it did on this bow anyway but I guess about everything has been a learning experience on this heck I had never even used a draw knife before now. I think or hope I’ve figured out how to post pictures so hopefully I can get some up.

WackEM:
Here’s a picture of the limb twist. Also if you look down the back of the bow you see ridges this was caused by me ripping the bark off. The sapling was about 4 1/2” at the btm and narrowed down to about 3 1/2” at the top. I cut it and it sit in the garage for about 3 weeks before I could get started on the bow. When I went to take the bark off with a draw knife I couldn’t tell where the back started because everything was white so in fear of violating the back of the bow I peeled it off. Is this cambium? If so should I scrap it off before I finish the bow or leave it? Sorry if this is a stupid question but I don’t know what I’m doing.

WackEM:
Sorry I can’t get but one picture at a time to post. The pic above is with the bow strung and here’s one on the tillering tree

M2A:
Looks good! Left limb looks perfec, right limb maybe not but dont have an unbraced photo to compare so maybe it is. Enjoy the finish piece. When your trying to remove the bark/cambium, or even chasing a ring and arnt sure where your at, test the side of the stave in an area that will be removed when shaping the limbs. That can help me out sometimes.
Mike

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