My first bow, need help!

[batman]

Hi my names Matt and i am midway through making my first serious attempt at a self bow made from green ash, The tiller is pretty shoddy on the bow and hope you guys could give me a hand in where to take material off, Im also getting anxious about taking to much material off because the weight of the bow is very high possibly 80+# at full draw, im not sure of the exact weight as i have no means to measure the weight, however the limbs are getting dangerously thin, i have also thinned the width of bow from 2.5 inches to 1.7 inches at its widest point. while im pleased the bow wood has proved very strong and resilient i cant get full draw without popping my shoulder out! The bows just under 5ft long for anyone interested. Now i have to attempt posting some pictures  

[Pappy]

First,I can't see the pictures,second you should never pull a bow back while tillering passed intended weight/draw length,and 3rd green wood is not good either,you will get a lot more set. Not
criticizing you but you ask. Love to see some pictures so we can tell how it is looking.
   Pappy

[batman]

yeh sorry imtryin to get some pictures uploaded but im having some trouble. when i said green ash i ment as in the species green ash as supposed to white or black ash, the wood has seasoned for several months, sorry if that was confusing.

[Pappy]

My bad,It should be fine then,it seasons pretty quick when thinned down and the bark off.
Hard to say what you need to do without seeing it. Also Jawges has a good site for beginners to
get started,might want to look at it also.Lots of lay out and tillering techniques. 
 Pappy

[Canoe]

Howdy Batman,

Green Ash and Black Ash are not really good woods to make bows from.  White Ash is a very good wood for bow making.  That said, if what ya gots layin' around is Green Ash, go for it.  But, keep it wide, 1-7/8" to 2".

Some sort of scale (cheap fishing scale or bathroom scale) is very helpful.

Here's a link to a Build-Along for beginners... 
http://poorfolkbows.com/oak.htm

(That guy uses FG (Fiber Glass) backing - we don't do that here on PA.)  Silk, burlap, paper, or most anything else natural will work fine for backing - or nothing at all is fine too.


And here's the link to Jawge's site, it's another really good sourse of bow buildin' info...  (Thanks Jawge.)
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/

Good Luck,
Canoe

[Orkraider]

Great advice. I've got multiple copies of Sam Harpers red oak board bow build along stashed around my place, I can see some of the pages from here. That's what got me through my first bow.

I also don't have a nice scale for tillering; the first time through, I made a tillering stick out of a chunk of 2 x 4, set in on the bathroom scale, zeroed the weight, set the bow in the notch, and pulled down to get the weight.

One thing I found out the hard way; you want to use the old fashioned kind of bathroom scale, not the fancy digital one. Trying to maintain a constant pull while the scale gets it's reading is impossible. =)

I can't wait to see pics.

Riley

saint paul MN