Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: A on September 06, 2018, 12:30:46 pm
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Hi, I'm new at bowery and currently working on my first full-length yew longbow (made self-bows of elm, ash, oak and hickory before). The problem is that it has already taken 6" of set at 18" draw. The stave had 3" of natural deflex in one limb, but I thought I might be able to correct it with a bit of heat bending. I hadn't really tried heat bending before though, so I ended op just soaking it with a lot of sunflower oil and reducing the set with about 1", which promptly sprang back, probably because I needed to take the bow inside before the night dew (is that what it's called? I'm from Scandinavia so English is not my primary language). The stave is 1 1/4 x 1 inch at the handle and I'm aiming at 35# 27". The wood has been seasoning for about 1,5 year.
Can anyone share some experience on whether another go for heat treating or other kind of correction will be able to make the bow at least shootable?
A
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Have you ever drawn it past 35 lbs?
Sounds like it's plenty wide.
What diameter was it during seasoning? That is, did you season as a big log or a smaller stave?
six inches is ALOT- nothing in your post seems to suggest this would happen. I mean, it sounds like you are doing it right.
set generally comes from too much moisture or bending with too much force.
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I would bet that you have all the bending right in the handle. 6" is far past acceptable amounts. Is this low elevation yew?? What is your ring count
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Well a couple things. Set can come from a few different places. Poor design, i.e. not long/wide enough, wrong type of wood for the design, etc. It can come from wood that's too wet, and it can come from poor tillering. It's hard for us to know which one is the problem without more information.
When yew has natural deflex it can be pretty difficult to counteract it. You can heat the deflex out of it but most of the time it will just come right back. When the whole stave is evenly deflexed I will usually reflex/recurve the outer limbs. The further out on the limbs that you do the reflexing the more likely it is to keep it. It's harder when you have one limb deflexed and the other straight. You might have a tough time getting them to balance out. I haven't had good luck with those types of yew staves before. Some pictures might help. Also, how long is your bow?
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The wood is a bit strange with the heartwood and the sapwood mixed some places in one limp (the one that started out straight). I thought it might influence the draw and make it a poorer bow, but I decided to give it a try since I don't really have much yew wood.
The stave is about 66" long and first it has been stored as whole log a year and then cleaved with a band saw and stored indoor for some monts or so. I've tried to tiller it carefully to somewhere around 20lbs but dunno if I've messed up with the dimensions.
I only have one very crappy image but I'll try to take some new ones in a day or two.
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;What weylin said!
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I've had Yew that was an odd mixture of heart and sap wood, it can tend to be a bit soft and take set.
My advice would be, ignore the set for now, finish the bow, shoot it a bit and after 6 months or even longer strap it down flat and heat treat the belly long and slow.
I've just found the bow I'm thinking of on my blog, have a read of this:-
https://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2015/05/thunderbolts-and-lightning.html (https://bowyersdiary.blogspot.com/2015/05/thunderbolts-and-lightning.html)
Del
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Thanks for the tips, it's nice to know that it's not only my inexperienced tiller that has caused the big amount of set :) I'll tiller it a bit closer to 27" and see what happens with the set. If the set gets much higher, I might give heat treating one more try, this time focusing on the outer limps. I'll keep you updated ;)