Question on tillering a snake bow?

[Eric Krewson]

I have used a long snaky stave, cut it in half and re-orientate the limbs to line them up and take most of the twist out by the way I spliced the billets back together

[Bob Barnes]

Nonbacked that’s exactly what I’m talking about. I done it on a couple bows. Bob Barnes has one. Maybe he can measure the edges of the bends and shed some light on what I’m saying. Hello Bob! 🤠🤠

That's a nice stave Arvin.  Let me know what you need as far as measurements or pictures.  I typically try to maintain a uniform belly, but I do make it slightly rounded like Eric does.  The idea that you are exploring sounds like it might work on some squiggles, but my last one had a place or two that you couldn't make a "T" to follow.

[Selfbowman]

Ok  Bob where the limb goes out past the string is the side closest the string thicker than the outside of the bend???is the section where the string is in the middle of the limb close to the same thickness all the way across. From looking at my growth ring below on the edges that’s what I see.is that your bow or the one I made you?? Regardless is the thickness like I ask question about?

[Bob Barnes]

The side closest to the string is a little thicker, but it's hard to be exact since I've already slightly rounded the edges.  It's about .01" thicker.  The 45° bend just before the part that's off the string is where the limb rings opened up/separated.

I marked the spot where the string crosses the limbs, and they are the thicker parts.  The back is almost flat.

[bentstick54]

Arvin, I don’t know if this will help or not, but here is one I made. It shots fine with little hand shock, but it does twist a little in the hand on release I contribute to so much limb protuding out from the string on the upper limb. There is just more mass weight on the right side of center than left. Limb thickness is consistent all the way with the back tip to tip.

[bentstick54]

More photos

[Pat B]

Arvin, on some snaky staves each snaky growth ring travels a different path. Many of those sneaky staves usually don't survive.

[Selfbowman]

Pat the survival rate is why I don’t build them very often. I will put tip overlays on this bow and put it on a long string and see how it bends at 4-8”.

[bentstick54]

Arvin, a better way to say on mine above is it rolls in a loose grip. When just held in the hand unstrung it rolls in the hand because of the mass weight of wood favoring one side.

[Eric Krewson]

I must be lucky; I have never had a snaky bow fail. I have one out there that probably has 100K arrows through it and is still shooting, others disappeared around the country and I don't know where they are now. When I make a snake bow, the new owner wants one with all the bells and whistles which includes snake skins, tip overlays and burl wood inlays in the sight window. I suspect these bows are babied somewhat and not everyday shooters. With that said, I never made a snake bow with wide sweeping curves like Arvin's project, my bows all had tighter snakes.

I did notice the other day that an old friend from long ago used one I made about 20 years ago to win the primitive class in the Bama state championship this year. Someone had take a picture of Tim out on the course and I noticed that he was still shooting the bow that I auctioned off to raise money for the Alabama Children's Hospital. His bid was so generous that I made a freebie BBO for his wife as a thank-you for his bid.

I put an inlayed a burl wood name plate in each of the bows, this was in the BBO.