My first "real" bow! (Mulberry)

[mwosborn]

Looks like it taking shape!  Looking forward to seeing some bend.

[TatankaOhitika]

Tiller to bend through the handle . And get a hold of some sinew and hide glue , and back it . If you want a bow that will last years , and it's your first , back it . Even with rawhide . Tiller first into half draw length than slap on 2 layers . Than after that you can get a hold of some near flawless wood , build a few bows , than advance to knotty staves like that one . And I know sone bowyers are gunna bust my head with me saying to back it , but thier is a reason sinew is applied to a bow . You lack tillering experience your first bow is going to break , unless you practice black magic.  Sinew is NOT difficult to apply . Hide glue is easy to make homemade or if you buy the materials at a store or online , its less than 8 bucks . 8 bucks of glue for more than one bow . And sinew is cheap as dirt on eidnesfurs.com . Or scrap some road kill deer or hunting .
Do you plan on hunting with this bow ? Or do you simply recreational shoot ?

Thiers a big difference . If you want a hunting bow to actually put meat in the pot , back it

If your shooting for fun , than thiers nothing really at stake or on the line . Either way good luck , take a break every 20 minutes of CAREFUL tillering ( walk off and make a sandwhich , get your mind off tillering because it will play mind tricks in ya ) and if you have to take a week , take a week .

[Josh B]

I don't think backing it is necessary at all. That stave has beautiful rings and the knots look pretty negligible to me.  Backing does not magically make a poor tillered bow into a good one.  You will be far better off to take your time and ask plenty of questions along the way.  There's no reason that you can't tiller your first bow correctly if you take your time and get help when your at a tough spot. As far as the bendy handle goes, yep, I agree its a good idea on that short stave.  Since its narrowed, it will be very easy to get the handle bending too much and take a lot of set or fail all together.  I recommend leaving the handle stiff until you have it tillered out to about 25" and then get it to working.  A little bit of bend at the handle will really make the tips move a lot, so easy does it.  If done right you should just start to feel the handle starting to bend at about 26".  Remember to go slow, take lots of pics, and ask more questions.  We will help all we can.  Good luck!   Josh

[TatankaOhitika]

I agree . But that's why it makes sense to tiller the bow into half draw ( 14 - 17 inches )  BEFORE sinew backing . You could sinew back the poorest tillered bow and it will still break . Back a funny tillered one but acceptable equalized stresses of tension and compression and it will survive . Commom sense  . I don't think the lad sounds like he doesn't know a scrap about bows . Im pretty sure he could work out an acceptable tiller . Actually I changed my mind . Go semi bender ! All im saying is in a " primitive " situation , itd be down right foolish to waste valuable resources like sinew that could save you the calories from making yet abother bow , and another , and another . Sinew keeps a weel tillered bow alive longer . Fact . But im a short sinew backed addict , dont listen to me  . And 60" in my world is like a medevil yew longbow !

[Raptard]

Tanks for all the advice! I will most likely rec. shoot with this bow, though I plan to bow hunt with future bows (I have enough wood to make about 6 staves including this one so I think i can make a descent enough bow by then ) i will most likely back this though, just to be safe, would i be able to just use wood glue instead of hide glue ( just wondering because i already have plenty of that).

also TatankaOhitika, what do you mean by "Go semi bender"?

[mwosborn]

TBIII will work well if you want to back it with rawhide.  If you decide to go with sinew, I would use hide glue.  I agree with Doc, I don't think you will have to back it if you don't want to.

[Raptard]

well i think i will still back it just in case.

[TatankaOhitika]

A semi-bender -  as in a tillered bow with a handle that doesn't bend completley through ( think lots of hand shock from a fully bending bow ) but IS NOT a solid handle ( non bender ) you get the benefit of less hand shock ( from what you see usually in fully bending bows )and a comfortable grip that gives you MORE draw length and effiency , because more wood is working  . I personally use semi bending handles on short 48 - 56 " bows . No sense of using a stiff handled bow in a short design . Even a 60" length would benefit from more draw length . And you learn to shoot accurate from slight hand shock !!

Regardless it is up to you . Tillering a fully bending bow will bring you back to your ancestors roots . A stiff handled bow is great for center shooting and accuracy , but it is less forgiving with tiller and is NOT our ancestors orginal design for a bow . Sinew back only after reading up on it . I agree with the guys here that if you have plenty of good staves , practice your tiller ! But if you want a long lasting , hunting AND recreational shooting bow , spend a lifetime tillering it , and back the bow with at least 2 layers of sinew . Trust me . It will last . Just pay attention to detail .

[TatankaOhitika]

And yes , if you can't make hide glue or buy it , forget backing the bow with sinew or rawhide .

[TatankaOhitika]

Last post for a bit , I promise  . But if you bombard your mind with all these designs and stuff for a bow , you literally run a higher risk for running into bow trouble . Keep it simple . Stick with a design and all the details that follow . But don't take my word for sinew backing completley because I believe in making bows under conditions our ancestors would be under . If I had a fine stave , I sure as hell would not wait to salvage enough sinew or hide scrapings to back it . Id build a nice unbacked bow and hunt with it ( or in your case have fun shooting )

But sinew or rawhide does give you an insurance . Consider your enviroment as well . Is it humid ? Does it rain alot ? A sinew backed bow would become sloppy in these conditions unless you treat it with a solid coat of beeswax or deer fat .  It will forgive ring violations and moderate doo doo tillering . But iv'e had poorly tillered bows that were backed break . Its gunna happen . Just see where your at . Keep us posted

-Aaron

[Raptard]

I just steamed the bow and it is now in the garage in some clamps, giving it a bit of a recurve, then tomorrow I am going to finish tillering. i would post pictures of my makeshift contraption but sadly i cannot find my camera. Anything in particular i should do for my string? i was just going to use twine till i get some deacon.
 

[TatankaOhitika]

Artificial sinew is awesome stuff . Anything two ply

[blackhawk]

I'm with gun doc...no need to back that..especially with sinew....that's just wasting your time and distarcting you from what you should be paying the most attention too...which is tillering...tillering and proper design makes a bow,and will make a bow last longer than you'll live regardless if its backed or not.....keep it simple when making your first few bows...adding another step to the process just means more time spent on it and trying to learn too much at once...again your focus needs to be on tillering...tiller tiller tiller...I can't stress that enough...the hardest part in the learning  curve is tillering...a poorly tillered sinewed bow is still a poorly made bow, and it won't make it better...id leave it unbacked and read and study all you can on how to make a proper bend in a bow...make yourself a tiller gizmo n learn how to use it...it's easy and will help you see what your novice untrained eyes can't see and tell you where you'll need to scrape....

[CORIUS]

ive heard that arti sinew is not good for a string

[Raptard]

make yourself a tiller gizmo n learn how to use it...

you mean  this thing? a tillering board?