Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: OTDEAN on June 21, 2018, 11:44:01 am
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Howdy,
When chasing the growth rings on the belly of the bow to get a good taper to begin with before tiller. Do you take some of the feathering or arrow heads as I like to call them ;D off to get the arrow ahead to point more in the middle? I assume if the arrow head is off to one side its thicker on that side so you take some off until the arrow head returns to centre? I used to know this but forgot! Been a while, already bust one need some advice before I proceed on the next so I can get one to (SH) (SH) (SH)
Cheers guys (-P
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I don't pay attention to rings on the belly. I taper the thickness of the limb.
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I don't pay attention to rings on the belly. I taper the thickness of the limb.
Same here. The bend is what I watch.
Bjrogg
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If growth rings are even there will be a fair degree of accuracy with that but it should be a product of that and correct taper rather than the other way around.
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Don't buy into the feathered grain nonsense, I did early on and ruined several staves trying to making the feathering just perfect. I picked up that tidbit out of one of the early bow making books or videos. This supports my conclusion that there is a lot of bad info in much of the reference material out there, unfortunately, as newbies with no experience we buy into what we read.
Who ever wrote that feathering was important must have never worked a snaky osage stave with a little twist.
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I don't bother with it. Jawge
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When I rough a bow out I chase a ring on the belly. Once I start tillering I ignore that and just tiller for best tiller. I am usually at least 1 full ring or more thicker than I will be when finished at this point.
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What these guys said. Feathering the rings wont give you a good tiller. You want a smooth, consistent thickness taper. That will give you an even bend.
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@OTDEAN
Feathering rings doesn't give any results when typed into google. Not sure what that is. If you are thinking about shape of rings, here is from my recent bow. The first picture shows clearly where does taper coming from. Funny thing that dot is not the actual center of bow but nevertheless it bends nice through that area. I think there was a dip in that part and so it came to be like that, instead of going from true center.
(https://s8.postimg.cc/xlz0bp35h/IMG_20180621_155030.jpg)
(https://s8.postimg.cc/id92xwu1h/IMG_20180621_155044.jpg)
(https://s8.postimg.cc/95guh8a4l/IMG_20180621_155148.jpg)
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It works to a point on good straight grained wood, good even ringed wood such as ash/Hackberry/Elm and sometime Hickory, not so good on other woods such as Osage. I watch it a little on the rough lay out but don't take long to see if it is helping and keeping the limb tapper and side to side even. :) as in most of bow building Just another tool but not a for sure way. ;)
Pappy
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I almost completely ignore them. In the vast majority of selfbows I've made, the growth rings are inconsistent in thickness and I would have ruined many staves trying to follow any such advice.
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Ditto on whats' been stated previously.It's more important for the sides to be of even thickness.With the centerline as close along the crown as possible.
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Not too long ago I posted on here about a bow I was roughing out using the rings. Before I knew it the thickness on one edge was like 3/8" while 1 1/2" away on the other side of the limb my edge was about 5/8 thick. I did catch it in time to save the bow from limb twist but just barely in time.
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IF you can pull it off without limb twist or crappy tiller, DO IT! Then in honor of the accomplishment call that bow The Unicorn and put up your tools for ever.
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I'll ask again, what is feathering?
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I'll ask again, what is feathering?
It just means tapering the limbs so as to bring your ring lines to a feather edge as they run out.
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Feathering is the shape of the wood grain on the belly. Assuming a perfect(doesn't exist) piece of wood you could tiller by making the shape of the feathers(also called flames) change gradually and evenly down the limb.
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I never use osage as I live in the UK. I do use Elm, Ash, Oak, Rowan, Hazel and Elder mostly for my flat bows, have done for years. Took a break for over a year and was getting a bit rusty that is why I asked the question. With the woods I use, normally I can get a half decent floor tiller by roughly following the flames of the rings. Normally it gives a good starting thickness taper. Yes sometimes one side of the limb ends up thicker but if I slowly work with a file I can correct the thickness of the sides as I go because I work at glacial speed. I find it quite easy to stagger the rings to make a pleasing thickness taper?
To be honest I normally just stick the bow then on the tillering tree just to get my limbs to balance after floor tiller and normally my tiller does not take a lot of work as the floor tillering with the feathering has done the trick. It works for me but its only part of my skills to getting near a finished bow. The only I have to be careful is paying close attention to any knots which have their own way of messing with the growth rings on the belly. That is something that comes with experience and being able to read the run of the rings and taper accordingly.
I often find after adjusting the sides of my bows just using my finger calipers I hardly ever get limb twist anyhow. I can imagine the use of the rings like this does not work with all types of wood. I always free hand my bows and never use anything but a piece of string, axe, rasp and file so I can not really speak for how accurate my tillering is, the bows shoot and dont break so something must be right.
Thanks for the advice ;D ;D ;D
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Are belly pictures from my bow from page before showing desired effect of feathering? I mean, do people who try it go for something similar as on pictures?
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Yeah the belly picture really confused the heck out of me. I first thought hmm yes that is the middle of the bow with the feathering away from centre but you said not. But yes that is roughly how my bellys look but not with such big pointy flame jobbies pointing towards the nocks. I normally start off with say 1/2" thickness all the way down the limbs and then start to feather the rings while always checking the bend on the floor tiller. What type of wood is it?
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The third picture is showing about what it should look like, all the flames pointing the same way, but the other pictures show what it does end up like. It's not a good way of doing it.
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Yes if you relied on that alone you would struggle but like anything there are lots of ways to skin a cat. I do find that when I use my fingers to do my thickness tapers I can normally tell when one ring begins and one ends because I can feel the thickness change in my fingers as I run them up and down the limbs and sure as I look when I feel the taper changing there is the new growth ring. If that makes sense?
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Shape of rings on my bow was the result of tillering. I am now aware that deliberately producing them like that would be hard to do. You can notice on some places that they do not taper but go for almost parallel and long. That is because I left there more wood on purpose because of potential hinges that started to develop. If I went for gradual thickness taper from center to tips, I would be left with two hinges, one on upper and one on lower limb.
That is probably the evidence why feathering can ruin your bow.