Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: dueb on August 28, 2014, 12:25:05 pm
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I bought a piece of ash a while ago with the hopes of making a flat bow. I'm in the tillering process right now, and its proving to be more difficult than I thought. Due to odd grain and inexperience the bow has developed a couple hinges and the tiller is not good. The wood has a natural twist to it which has been difficult to cope with. I was wondering if I could get some advice to help salvage this bow. Maybe a hide or leather backing will stop it from breaking at one of the hinges? I don't know, but any help is appreciated. Here are some pictures - www.imgur.com/a/fm2Vr
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You can't really unhinge the hinges, the only thing left is to remove small amounts of wood where the limbs do not bend as much....in effect, bring the whole bow down to the hinge's level. Then you finish out the bow with sandpaper, stain or paint as you like, lay on a protective finish, add a leather handle wrap or not, and call it good. Immediately grab another piece of wood and start again. Rinse and repeat as necessary until you have the perfect bow.
Doesn't look too bad! Might as well keep going on it! Keep posting pics and we'll give any help we can.
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You have two basic choices either stop( give up) or keep going (end up with a bow)
But I may add a third s l o w d o w n
Now what part do you need help understanding
Is there a twist that is giving you trouble or poor tillering that is giving you a twist
You can do this just go slow and ask very specific questions the help yopu need is right here on this forum
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It's mostly the twists of the wood and the kinks in the grain that is troubling me.
If I just bring the whole bow down to match the hinge and just back it later with hide or something to stiffen it up does that sound like a good idea?
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Lets get a bow out of it first then we can worry about what is next
Dont pull on it any harder than is necessary to see what is going wrong
A twist in the grain can look like a hing without really being one is that what you have ? or have you for sure removed to much wood from a spot if you have then you need to take the rest down to match that spot
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Lets get a bow out of it first then we can worry about what is next
Dont pull on it any harder than is necessary to see what is going wrong
A twist in the grain can look like a hing without really being one is that what you have ? or have you for sure removed to much wood from a spot if you have then you need to take the rest down to match that spot
When I floor tiller it you can definitely tell its bending more at that one spot.
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Rawhide will not add any stiffness to the bow, it would however help prevent a splinter from lifting on the back IF you had violated the grain of the wood. I am guessing the ash was peeled while green? If so, don't waste a moment worrying about the back! Peel the bark and your back is flawless already!
Sinew backing would raise the weight of the bow, but I generally don't recommend it unless you have already designed the bow around the idea of sinew backing. Putting sinew backing on an improperly tillered bow often leaves you with an improperly tillered bow with sinew backing. It's kinda like coming out of a confused moment at the car dealership only to realize you have purchased a used Yugo. Putting racing tires on it isn't the solution.
I don't think your bow is a Yugo yet...Let's work on getting it tillered out.
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I think it looks fine. The hinges u talk of seem to be where the stave kinks a little. Slow down and u got it.
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Ok, I'm just going to slowly start correcting the tiller with the rasp. I will update when I make some progress or if I run into a problem. Thanks for the replies so far, I appreciate them, Cheers!
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Rawhide will not add any stiffness to the bow, it would however help prevent a splinter from lifting on the back IF you had violated the grain of the wood. I am guessing the ash was peeled while green? If so, don't waste a moment worrying about the back! Peel the bark and your back is flawless already!
I bought the stave dry with the bark still on, I think I did "violate" the grain on the back side during the process of removing the bark. I'll get a picture up of the back side in a while.
Edit: here is a pic of the back, notice how the grain splits. I think that was a mistake. http://i.imgur.com/Cx0aKaD.jpg
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Use a scraper or sand paper. A rasp takes off a lot of wood real fast so I could make things worse. Use a set of old scissors or a card scraper. Mark the spot that u think is bending more and DONT remove any wood from those spots.
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try to keep the taper even,, through the dips and bumps,,,it may not look like it is bending even,, but if the wood is working evenly,,, the bow wont break,,,
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Bad news guys. I was using sandpaper to even out the thickness on the limbs, and bending it slightly every so often to see how it looked. The last bend I did I heard a snap and saw this ( http://i.imgur.com/y9PdHud.jpg ) on the back, Wasn't even bending it that much.
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Yup, right where you went down thru that growthring. Dang.
Ok, on to the next one!!
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Whelp if this one is destined to break might as well hang it up as a reminder and start anew. Maybe Hickory next, one with super straight grain.
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Dude don't feel bad. the issue was that the back of your bow wasn't a solid continuous growth ring. That's why when I cut wood I peel the bark off and leave that as the back. I guess you could have backed it but I don't nothing about that. It took me a few attempts before I ever made a decent bow
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It's all good, got more wood and giving it another go. I'll consider this one a learning experience. ;)
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Tha bow and broke yet! Chase another ring down below the damage. Tiller it out properly. Then if you can make the back flat and glue on a hickory backing.