Seeking advice on first time self bow

[Lsh]

Hi All,

I'm attempting my first self bow, I have made a few board bows and broken a few!

Being that I live in New England I figured I should style this after the Sudbury bow (however only in general shape and design, I'm not trying to make a copy).  Of course I also have no hickory on my property so I cut down and have aged a hunk of Sassafras that I am using.  I may have already made at least one mistake in that I took the back down to the first heart wood ring.  I did this because my experience with making spoons out of this wood is that the sap wood was not very tough.

My basic plan is for a bow that is 67 inches tip to tip, 1 inch at the handle, 2 inches mid limb and 3/4 inch at the tips.  Depth to be determined by tillering.  Hope to get to a 40# bow.  Currently I have roughed out the shape on the stave and cut it down to a starting point leaving some slack in all dimensions.

Now the area that I'm looking for advice on.

The stave has a side to side bend in it (actually almost an S bend in one limb) and a slight prop twist.  So I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.  I figured that I could do one of several things:

1. Leave it how it is and see what happens.
2. Leave it, but push the handle to towards the string area and push the tips towards the other side.
3. Try to bend the limb towards straight at the handle using heat.
4. Try to bend the limb towards straight at the handle using steam.
5. Try to bend the limb towards straight at the handle using steam and try to correct the prop twist.

I'm currently leaning towards #2.  From the pictures you should be able to see that a string between the center of the tips is about 3/4 inch to one side.  Hopefully they will also show the bend in the limb and the prop twist.

Thoughts and advice are greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Scott

[aaron]

I would be tempted to leave it as is, or possibly bend the handle slightly. I would ignore the prop twist. I have never had luck bending a handle sideways... they either broke or did not bend... but it can be done.  It looks like the string lies just barely outside the handle, but you will not truely know the string alignment until you get to low brace.

[scp]

I would just tiller it out. And bend the handle if necessary. But at 3/4 inch, I would simply call it center-shot without an arrow shelf. Good luck.

[aaron]

When you narrow the tips, do so on one side only- this will improve alignment slightly.

[DuBois]

I have no experience with that wood but I wonder if 2" is more than you need fore 40#?
You may be able to go to 1.5" mid limb and depending on which side you remove from (as long as the grain allows), be able to get better alignment and then narrow tips to get even better. 3/4" tips are not necessary-3/8 to 1/2" is plenty and since tips are not bending you can adjust side to side without worrying much about keeping with the grain.

I have had some luck with steaming a handle section for about 45 minutes and then clamping handle with limbs up on blocks to get better alignment. It doesn't take all that much movement in the handle to effect the tips a lot. 

cool stick

[Lsh]

From my understanding (which is only from the reading I have done) Sassafras is weak in tension so you want to go wide with it.

I would say that my first thought was to just set the handle towards the string line and push tI he tips to the other side.  So I think that is what I'll try and see how the tillering goes.  I'll have to say that that is my big weakness, I don't really see the issues with the tillering until it's too late!  I'm hoping that this one goes better.

I also have a friend that has some land that he said I could look for some hickory on.  So maybe this will just be a learning exercise, like so many of my efforts!

Thanks for the replies.

[burtonridr]

I had this exact same thing happen on my last bow, I just left it alone. I just made sure that the arrow rest was on the same side of the bow as the centerline of the string.

I think I managed to get the twist to come out as it draws by shaving a little more off the stiff side as I tillered. If I remember right, the limbs end up almost un twisted at full draw.... The whole thing was my fault, I roughed it out with a slight twist.... Pretty frustrating to notice after getting it strung and on the tillering tree.

[Springbuck]

 I have no experience with heat treating or correcting sassafras, but none of those bends are extreme.  If that was just about any white wood I know, I could clamp the whole bow flat and straight  to a hardwood 1x2, with maybe 4 c-clamps, and correct the handle, twist and tip alignment all at once with dry heat.  Nothing i can see requires steam or any really hard cranking. 

If someone can confirm that sassafras responds to heat, that's my advice.   I can handle all kinds of side to side wags, but I really like a pretty symmetrical view from the side of the limbs while tillering.  The twists and rollercoaster waves don't cause issues with bending and can be worked around, but they sure mess with my eye, creating the impression of fat spots or flats, and making the bow look totally different when viewed from one side, then the other.

Since this is your first.... It looks like a great start, so good luck.

[H Rhodes]

Welcome to this very addictive thing....  You are bit by the bow building bug, I can tell.  Sassafras, while it smells great to work with, can be a contrary wood for a new bowyer. I think you have a great start on this bow.  I would set it aside for now.  Take your friend up on the hickory staves.  Make a couple of hickory bows of any design you want to try.  Get some tillering experience under your belt with some more foregiving types of staves.  Hickory and white oak staves are great to learn on.  You can screw them up, end up with more set than you might have wanted, but they are doggone hard to break, even for a new guy. 
    If you just have to proceed with this one right now, I would use steam for my corrections - about an hour for the handle straightening.  Steam for the prop twist on the limbs too.  Let it have about a week to rehydrate afterwards and then forge ahead.  I would leave it wide and 40 lbs is a good goal.   Good luck and keep us posted.

[Chief RID]

I'll be watching. My sass. looks about at the same stage. I have been stuck for a while now. I pulled it out this week with the intent to just make it work. I put it away as I thought better.

[make-n-break]

Leave it! I've been making my last couple bows with intentially offset limbs - or naturally center shot. I was inspired to do so by a back issue of Primitive Archer magazine from the mid 90's that had a write up about offset limbs and was asking people to give it a try. I tried it and really liked it! It does make them shoot a lot more like a center shot bow.

[bubby]

If you decide you need to do some correction do a search for Mark st Louis localized method of heat correction