Tiller check and question about sound.

[Accipiter]

Just (mostly) finished up bow #4, a bendy-handle made from california bay and pulling somewhere slightly north of 50 lbs at my 26" draw length. Its exactly 56" ntn and 1.5" wide at the handle, widening to  1 7/8" about 7" out and then tapering pyramid style to the tips. Still holds 1/2" of just-unstring reflex after 100+ shots, down from 2" that I heat treated in, and casts an arrow pretty fast as far as I can tell. However, its main flaw is that its quite a bit louder than my past bows. Brace height is low (5.5"), string and arrows are pretty standard weight and I dont think the string is slapping the wood at all, so I was wondering if the twangy sound could be an effect of the tiller, or if it is just due to the lighter wood (.59 SG, around .8 on my other bows) and higher poundage(<45 lbs on my other bows). Any thoughts? Also, if there any places you think I should scrape to get working more, or potentially back with flax to stiffen, let me know. This bow was a bit tricky to tiller evenly due to some propeller twist, but I'd like to get a fast, stealthy hunting bow out of it if I can.

[Josh B]

At that low of a brace with an 1 1/2" wide handle, I would suspect that the noise your hearing is the arrow smacking the bow.  Raise brace height or use lighter spine arrows.  Maybe a combination of the two.  If you put a piece of masking tape on the arrow pass it should show if the back of the arrow is hitting the bow.  If it were a tiller issue making the noise, you would be feeling some hand shock as well as hearing the noise.  BTW sweet bow!  Tiller looks pretty good to me based on how you described the front profile.   Josh

[Peacebow_Coos]

Myrtle!  Nice, I've been wanting to try Myrtle again, sweet bow man can't help ya on the question though, just listen to Gun Doc

[Accipiter]

Gun Doc - Thanks for the idea, that could definitely be it. I'll try the masking tape trick tomorrow and see if it gets beat up by the back of the arrows. My arrows are all homemade with an extremely crude spine tester, so I'll have to wait until I can build a more accurate one before I can test your solution though. I'm not too sure I want to raise the brace height, as its already around 10% of the bow length.

And thanks for the compliments! I think I may be starting to get the hang off this bowyering thing, if a little slowly.

Peacebow, I've really enjoyed working with the myrtle, it seems quite strong for its light weight and takes heat treating extremely well. Also real easy to work with hand tools and pretty too.

[Josh B]

Ok...you'll have to forgive my ignorance as I'm self taught in this craft, but where did you get the 10% brace height bit.  I have never followed such a rule when setting brace height.   Well obviously, I've never even heard of it before.  I adjust brace height to where the bow performs the best and have never had a problem.   Its your bow of course, so its your decision.   I'm just curious as to where the arbitrary brace height percentage came from?  Josh

[crooketarrow]

  NEVER HEARD OF THAT ONE EITHER.
 I think you mean higher base ,heavyer arrow. Heavyer arrows are quiter.
 I'd try a fast flight and see if the strings hitting the handle. If it stops you know you need to raise the brase hight.
 I know your not surpose to put fast flights on selfbows. Who made that one up. I've put fast flights on lots of bows. Not because they needed it. But thats all I had at the time. I even went through a time after starting out I put them on a lot of my bows if the person did'nt care. Never had a one returned.
 
 

[Weylin]

I think the "no fast flight on self bows" myth has been thoroughly debunked. There are just way too many people that do it with no consequences.

[adb]

FF is fine for bows... selfbows included. If you increase your brace height, the bow will become less noisy, and it won't whack your wrist so bad either. I keep my BH around 6.5" (measured from the back of the bow).

Nice bow, BTW.

Didn't yer Mumma tell you not to stand on yer bed 

[Carson (CMB)]

Cool bow! I want to give that California bay a try too. Like Gun Doc said, it sounds like your sound might be arrow slap.  Where does your string fall through the handle? 

[Accipiter]

Gun Doc, to be completely honest the 10% rule was something I found randomly on the internet  (not this site) while searching for info on how long to make my string, so I certainly don't mean to impose it as gospel. It did make a certain sense to me, but I can see how having a higher brace height would help the arrow not smack the handle. I tried the masking tape trick and it showed a bit of rubbing on the belly side of the arrow pass, so I switched sides and that even-ed out the rubbing and seemed to quiet it down quite a bit. I had thought the string ran through the center before I braced it, but I think Carson was on the right track with the string being off center. Thanks again for the tips and I will put up a few more photos once its finished up.

[David_Daugherty]

Accepter I do the same thing Gundoc said about the tape.  If it does leave a mark a use sandpaper and sand down the area where the contact is.  Usually if I round it off a bit it takes care of the problem.