Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Cameroo on May 26, 2011, 02:08:47 am
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I started tillering what I was hoping to be my trade bow tonight, but I don't think that it's going to make weight. I might have made a rookie mistake and taken too much wood off before tillering... oh wait, I am a rookie :)
Right now it's at 30 lbs at 22 inches, and just starting to take some set. I want to get the limbs bending a tad more about 2/3 of the way out. Do I have any hope of making 45 lbs? I think this one is going to have to be for my sister :P
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/4%20Maple_Purple/P1010933.jpg)
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Looking pretty good,what draw length are you going for ? You will usually pick up 2 to 3 lbs. per inch of draw,so if you are going for 28 it would be close if you don't have any more problems,also you
could heat treat the belly and flip the tips a bit and pick up several lbs. It is is long enough you could pike it an inch or 2 also. I have also learned over the years to get the limbs bending even but not try and get it to close before I get them to a short brace. That gives me some wood to work with.You might make it,the only way to find out is give it a go. :)
Pappy
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Looks like its coming allong good, Pappy nailed it ;D
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If you have any more maple (anything else tension strong) you could rip a 1/8inch backing off of another board. both surfaces are already flat so glue up would be easy. only problem would be the nice nocks you have already installed would have to go by by.
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I forgot to mention that I backed this with rawhide, glued on with TB3, so I'm not sure it would be wise to do any heat treating, although I'd love to try it sometime soon. I'll probably just finish tillering and see what I get.
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You will be close if not right at your target weight, I wouldnt stress if its a little under weight ;D
Josh
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I pretty much finished tillering this one, and as I suspected, it came out quite a bit lighter than I had hoped. It's pulling about 37lbs at 28". I could try piking it, but I think I'd rather just leave it as-is. Guess this will be either for my girlfriend or my sister :)
Shucks, now I have to start another one :P
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/4%20Maple_Purple/P1010939.jpg)
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Sucks that it didn't work out for the trade but it has a perfect tiller, and it looks like you dressed up the tips too. better luck next time on the weight, I know your frustration. :)
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It's all good. I had a girly bow on my to-do list, it just got bumped up the list a couple spots :) I'll take some better pictures once its all done.
Maybe this bow will inspire my girlfriend to take up archery... doubtful, but there's always hope!
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next time ya think your coming in light & @ 23" or so, stop scraping and just exercise the heck out of it and keep streching it, alot of bows I do this on as I just start shooting it in , tape on the arrow at 24" 26" and so on till I get to full draw, checking draw weight as the length goes up, it's worked so far, Bub
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Still a sweet bow.
I once "finished" tillering a bow then started sanding the tool marks out. I didn't realize it but I had sanded one limb a lot more than the other then it was out of tiller. I panicked and took too much wood off the other limb.. after all was said and done I dropped the weight by 10lbs....I was depressed. Now I start sanding 2 inches shy of full draw and really pay attention to what I do to each limb. It's really helped me hit my target weight...more often.
What you have is a really nice bow you can target shoot all day. AND you have the chance to build another bow. See it's all good.
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Bub - I did as little scraping after hitting 22 inches as possible, but the tiller still needed a bit of work to get the tips coming in a bit more. I generally try to have the tiller dialed in a lot earlier, just didn't work out that way with this one.
Arrowind - thanks man. I still have to do the final sanding so I expect to lose 2 or 3 lbs yet. But you're right, these light bows are fun to shoot all day. And I've already got another one started. I'm going to try making it about 1/4" wider to reduce the set a bit, and maybe I'll play with the heat gun a bit to put some reflex in and temper it a bit.
I had fun making this one. It's only my 4th bow, and the same general design as my first 3, but I did a couple things different just to experiment. I kinda "holmied" the tips a bit, leaving them thicker and narrowed a bit, and also angled my tip overlays up a bit. (Which gave me a whopping 1/4" of reflex! ;) )
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I started on another maple bow today. I made the parallel part of the limb 1/4 inch wider (1 5/8"), and made it slightly bendy-handled, and what a difference that made. I was able to take it up to 50 lbs fairly early in the process, and there is no set at all. At least my last failure taught me something :) I'm feeling really good about this one.
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/tillerguide.jpg)
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new is looking nice.
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Looks good so far. Those short bendy handle bows are by far my favorite.
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I got some more done on this sucker and figured I'd post a couple pictures. The first bow in this thread didn't make the weight I wanted so I started this second one in hopes of it becoming my trade bow. I finished tillering it and it's at about 53 lbs @28, so once I'm done the finish sanding it should be just where I want it. I was contemplating trying to heat treat this a bit, because from what I've read maple responds really well to it, but it's getting pretty close to crunch time, and I'm not sure I want to rush another one if something goes wrong (since I've never done it before).
I put 3 layers of rawhide on both sides of the grip to build it up a bit, figuring a wooden handle would just pop off. I've been wanting to try a grip like this for a while. I have a stingray skin that I think I might try for the handle wrap.
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/P1010959.jpg)
I got the tips (overlayed with African Mahogany) roughed-out and tried a few shots outside in the dark, since I couldn't wait till tomorrow :) Seems to shoot nicely, but makes a bit of a twang when released. Not really any hand shock though.
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/P1010957.jpg)
Here's some crappy pics of brace and full draw. I didn't notice till after I took the pics that it wasn't sitting quite level on the tree. Both limbs are actually pretty much even.
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/P1010956.jpg)
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/P1010954.jpg)
Thanks for looking. Any commentary is appreciated :)
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Very nice!!
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I started tillering what I was hoping to be my trade bow tonight, but I don't think that it's going to make weight. I might have made a rookie mistake and taken too much wood off before tillering... oh wait, I am a rookie :)
Right now it's at 30 lbs at 22 inches, and just starting to take some set. I want to get the limbs bending a tad more about 2/3 of the way out. Do I have any hope of making 45 lbs? I think this one is going to have to be for my sister :P
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/4%20Maple_Purple/P1010933.jpg)
Hey, buddy, don't take all the blame! Seems to me you had some help taking a bit too much wood off that stave! ;)
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nice tiller on the new one Cameroo, and the tips are super sweet. I want to try the rawhide grip on one of mine. whoever gets it shouuld be a happpy camper :)
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Hey, buddy, don't take all the blame! Seems to me you had some help taking a bit too much wood off that stave! ;)
Oh ya, thanks buddy :) I didn't want to point fingers >:D You just got a little band saw happy, that's all! I roughed this one out with a jigsaw, worked ok, just took a bit longer.
Thanks Eric. I like the grip, it's nice to feel the handle bend a bit when you draw it back.
Hopefully I'll have it pretty much done and ready to ship by next week.
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That's looking real good Cam. Love the tips. Stingray would make an awesome handle......been meaning to try that myself sometime.
I use leather to fill in the grip on bendy handle bows the same way....... always worked well for me.
Looking foreward to seeing the finished bow.
Darcy :)
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I think I'm ready to call this one done. For the first time, I tried a stingray skin grip on it, and used some latigo strips to build up some shoulders on the ends, to serve as a shelf (also making it ambidextrous). On the edges that were stitched, I folded it over on itself and crazy glued it to itself to give a little extra strength and keep the thread from pulling through the holes. After much debate over what to use to stitch it, I thought that some serving thread might look good, and go along with the black and white color scheme. All that's left is to add the recipient's name and some other finishing touches, and then I'll probably get it in the mail.
Anyway, here are some pics from the latest photo shoot ;D
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/grip.jpg)
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/grip_belly.jpg)
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/grip_back.jpg)
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/tip.jpg)
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/unbraced.jpg)
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/braced.jpg)
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/full_draw.jpg)
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:o man that handle it sweeeet, and ambidextrous, built by a lefty, better not get my hopes up, seriously me likey, Bub
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two thumbs up :) nice bow you did a great job.
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Nice bow. I like the stingray handle. That would match my stingray boots nicely ;D
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very nice Cameroo, love the grip(along with everybody else :)).nice smooth arc at full draw. somebody will be very happy
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Nice one Cam! :)
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Sure looks nice to me,like that handle and tips look awesome-well done - Hammertime
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Thanks everyone ;D
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Looks awesome Cam. Great idea with the leather wedge to build up for the rolled top and bottom.......love the stingray. :)
Darcy
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Nice job, amigo!
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Really nice job on that bow. I'm gonna have to borrow that stingray design idea. Both the leather itself and the arrow rest construction is just plain awesome!!
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Very nice job on that one,looks great in all aspects. :)
Pappy
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Is that stringray tanned or raw? I catch em on occassion and never thought to make handles.
It really makes the bow.
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Beautiful workmanship,clean crisp and stylish!
/Mikael
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Thanks guys :) I appreciate it.
Bigcountry - I bought it tanned, with that diamond pattern already on it. I bought this one from Tandy - they go on sale for about $15, 3 or 4 times a year. I've also seen them on ebay with all kinds of patterns printed on them from tiger stripes to zebra.
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Turned out great man, good job !
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Well, it looks like I had everyone (including myself) tricked into thinking this was a good bow ;) After I did the finish sanding, I noticed that it was bending more right at the handle than it was before. I then realized it was likely from sanding too much where the built up rawhide grip met the back of the bow. It really is amazing how little wood it takes to totally change the tiller of a bow.
Anyway, I was out shooting in the back yard a bit and heard that sound that no bowyer wants to hear. Upon closer investigation, I noticed it cracked right at that spot by the handle. This is my first "failure" out of 5 bows, I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later :) Lesson learned though.
I'm so glad though that it happened now, and not after I shipped it. Back to the drawing board...
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t253/cbergerman/640/5%20Maple%20Self/garbage.jpg)
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I guess your SOL... ::) Anyways I just broke one of my bows last week, it sucks
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That's not firewood!!! That's a prime candidate for a takedown sleeve. The true measure of a craftsman is not how many mistakes are made, but how he covers them up!
Gun Doc
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Yeah make a TD! Ive never made one itll be a learning process
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That's a good suggestion - or even a 3 piece takedown. But I've never made one before either, and with the deadline fast approaching, I'm going to just start over and deal with this one later. I guess there is hope for it though...
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Bummer man! I guess that answers that question about bendy handle maple bows. Funny, I've never actually made one. All the maple bows I've made have been stiff handled, with elliptical tiller. But you're right... better now, than after it shipped. It's always a good idea to shoot in a bow, before you can truly call it done! But, like I always say... if you ain't breakin' nuthin', you ain't makin' nuthin'! Get back on that horse buddy...
I was just actually thinking the other day, that you're about due to break one. Don't want you gettin' all puffy-headed!! Don't be too bummed, it'll make you a better bowyer. ;)
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Cam, I think I'd pull the handle wrap, grind/cut off that leather, and glue on thin belly and thicker backing laminations extending over the handle and tapering to nothing a couple inches outside the break. You could shape the backing lamination to get that handle shape back you had. Then I'd wrap it with silk or linen thread for both decoration and strength. You might have to retiller since it'll be stiff handled, but I'll bet you can save the bow if you move the handle stress out onto a power lam. Just a thought.
I think the break is too far from the center to make a sleeve bow unless you're willing to shorten that limb a couple inches. Sleeve takedowns aren't hard at all, but normally when a bow breaks you only get one limb of the two that you can save. I don't throw any good limbs from bow failures away anymore, that's for sure. You probably could do a 3 piece takedown with it, but if you go that way I agree that you'd be wiser to start a new bow and then take your time doing the takedown.
George
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Bummer man! I guess that answers that question about bendy handle maple bows. Funny, I've never actually made one. All the maple bows I've made have been stiff handled, with elliptical tiller. But you're right... better now, than after it shipped. It's always a good idea to shoot in a bow, before you can truly call it done! But, like I always say... if you ain't breakin' nuthin', you ain't makin' nuthin'! Get back on that horse buddy...
I was just actually thinking the other day, that you're about due to break one. Don't want you gettin' all puffy-headed!! Don't be too bummed, it'll make you a better bowyer. ;)
Adam - I have no doubt that it CAN be done, I just went about it the wrong way, and then made a critical mistake with the sander. That 3rd bow I made for dad was kinda bendy a bit. This breakage deflated my head a little, but I realize it's part of the game and I had it coming :) I already floor tillered another one tonight, gonna try the same style again :)
George - those are good ideas as well. But I think I'll just set it aside for now and ponder for a bit.
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That sucks.....sorry to see that, but you are taking it well and learning from it so the loss is not too bad.
In my opinion, you can make a bendy handle bow out of any wood that will make a bow at all, you just have to make sure you don't try to get it to bend too much there. Especially if you narrow the handle at all. On to round three eh :)
Darcy
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That's a tough break :-[
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They just keep getting better that one was cool but third times a charm l am on the edge of
my seat can't wait to see the pics :o.of the lucky bow that gets to wear that wrap :o
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As long as only the bow broke and not your attitude you will be fine ;).
It WAS pretty though :-\.
Lane