Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Lombard on June 21, 2010, 08:44:04 pm
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Got all kinds of it in the drying rack though. Made something out of this Maple a friend had given me awhile back. Sixty eight inches, 40 pounds at twenty eight, bottom limb is one and three quarter inches shorter than the top limb. Still have some finishing to do. Haven't heat treated Maple before. Gonna give it a try though, and see how much mass can be shed. It shouldn't bother his injured shoulder to much, at that weight.
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Howdy Lombard,
At a glance, it looked as though it's bending a lot near the handle and is too stiff beyond. (Rookies do this.)
I did the fancy ellipse to show.
All the best,
Canoe
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Lombard,
I hope that is helpful.
The limbs sould be shaped more like the ellipse.
All the Best,
Canoe
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Canoe, you would be right if I was going for an elliptical tiller. What I have there is more in line with a true arc of the circle tiller. Not bad for a rookie huh?
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Slightly stiff tips, and after one hundred arrows it has taken an inch and a half of set.
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Nice looking Dave. Looks like it will turn out like all your other rookie bows ;D
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Tiller looks great - with this arc and the stiff tips it looks like a fast bow.
Greetz
Cord
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Looking good to me.Nice work. :)
Pappy
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How about a front pic of it?
Like the tiller a lot, especially that it starts bending right out the fades. That's difficult to get right IMO
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Thanks guys. T bod, at this time I do not have a front picture. When I finish it up, I'll get one posted for you. The bow has a pyramid profile, and is my first attempt at a hybrid, as per Mr. Torges; the bow has very slight movement through the handle, and it is smooth to draw, and quick to return. Those tips will be losing a good bit of mass, just as soon as I heat treat the belly. The man I'm building it for has a genetic anomaly, in that he has a natural thirty two inch draw. So I really made an effort to get all the limb working, that I could.
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Looks great! Tiller looks perfect! :)
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The width profile and the location of the set guide my hand on the tiller shape, and to some extent the initial design plan. I'd be curious to see the rested, unbraced profile, and the width profile. Lots of inner bend preserves string angle, good for a shorter bow, lots of outer bend usually more efficient (for lighter arrows) frequently more appropriate for a longer bow. But it depends, a pronounced pyramid or homle obviously wants to work the wide wood.
Nice bow.
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Okay, I got down to the store for some batteries, and got the other photos taken.
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Only thing that could be worse than "last piece of dry wood in the pile" is "no pile at all". That's probally about the best darn rookie bow that I've ever seen. ;)
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Minor set back this afternoon. Take notice of the photo of the bow on the mantle, with the string looping down. Well that string was something new, and our Lab puppy took notice. I see her stand up and swipe at the sting with her paw, but it was already over. Nothing I could do but say, oh sugar! The bow flipped down, and the tip on the top limb made a sickening crack, as it struck the brick shelf at the bottom. It split following the lateral grain, for three and a half inches.
However, all was not lost. Instead of sixty eight inches, it is now sixty inches. With the length it had, I was feeling good about it holding up at that width, to my friends thirty two inch draw. At sixty inches, I don't believe it holds that possibility, as it is after all, Maple.
So it is cut down, and I started to tiller it to the shorter length. Will be trying for forty at twenty eight now. Make somebody a bow anyway.
I love my lab, I love my lab, I love my lab... >:D
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Based on the set I might want for it to work a little more midlimb, but very subtle diff. Too bad about the calamity, but an excuse to start another.
A passionate bowyer would be well served to get a fair stable of bow wood going as soon as is practical. I (have) cut wood every year, even if I had 10s of staves already on hand. First year I cut 3 big trees I think. You can always cull it and gift it if you have... too much, if that is possible.
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Yeah I hear you DCM4. I have thirty staves in the drying rack, and enough Red Oak from the hardwood mill for a dozen bows. Will start to reduce some of those to aid in drying. A few those Elm staves have been up in the rack for a couple years, and may be very close.
Here is a photo of the shortened Maple. Did some long string tillering last night. Twisted up another string, and got it to low brace, and pulling twenty inches. Back to the Doctor again today, and maybe get to work on it some more later. No, I won't leave it there for the puppy to play with either. Lord that dog likes sticks.
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Howdy Lombard,
Very Nice.
I'm sure your friend will enjoy it.
All the Best,
Canoe
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I am an advocate of forced drying, but also I'm lazy and being 12 odd years into it have lots of naturally dried on hand as well. A whitewood stave can be brought from stump to bow in less than 3 months, imho, and any more than that is just a waste of time. There may be a smidgen of diff, expecially in woods with milky sap like yew and osage, in stave cured for 6 or 8 years, but I don't think most hobbiest bowyers can get enough of the goodie out of a typical project to make any difference, especially if not keenly atuned to not overworking the stave during tillering.
Shorty is looking good.
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The humidity where Dave lives is 86%. Unless you use a hotbox, it takes a while to dry out naturally. Bill
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I have not tried force drying yet. Building a steam tube is on my to do list. I have been letting my wood stabilize in the drying rack in the overhead of my mini barn , then rough bows in. At that point, I am able to poke them in my air conditioning return, (wife doesn't even know I'm hoarding wood in the house), the humidity meter in there stays right around 42%. After a couple weeks in there, I start making shavings, and crumple them in my hand. If they sounds like popcorn, then I go closer to final dimensions, and check the shavings again. If they don't crunch like popcorn, back in the air return for some more drying. Not a perfect system by any means, but as I gain experience I seem to be getting closer and closer. I've ruined bows rushing tillering, with to high a moisture content.
Yeah Bill, it is plenty hot and sticky around here lately.
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Dave, just make you a hot box with three 75 watt bulbs in it. That's what I use, the humidity is very high here in the summer as well.
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Been working on the shortened Maple all morning. It was looking good, holding forty five pounds at twenty eight. I pulled a half inch at a time to thirty, and that is when it died. Looks as though it let go on the same lateral grain, as the split when the dog pulled off of the mantle. Death of Maple bow complete.
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Next ;D
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Ouch,to bad. 30 inches is asking a lot. :)
Pappy