why wont my bow bend?

[emd023]

this is my first bow. its a maple backed red oak board bow. i dont understand why its still so stiff.


here is the bow at 40#.







my bow is just as thick as any other ELB ive seen. can anyone help me out?

[burchett.donald]

  Looks like your around floor tiller? Be patient because it will bend. Continue removing wood slowly and use a scale so you don't pull past your intended draw weight.

[burchett.donald]

emd023,
              I like the bend so far it is even...Shorten that long string up to about the length of your bow at this point. Be patient because we are only removing thousandths of an inch here and that is the idea. We want to really sneak up on that tiller. Soon or later you will hit that magic width and see movement and get it bent far enough to brace it at a few inches. Then you will start all over again, slowly sneaking up on that final and full tiller at your draw length. You said this was your first and the best advice I can give is patience or it could break or you will over shoot your intended weight.
                                                               Don

[willie]

Emd023

my bow is just as thick as any other ELB ive seen. can anyone help me out?

is the bow you are comparing thickness with the same length as your bow?

shorter bows need to be thinner.

what tool are you removing thickness with at this point?


willie

[bubby]

yeah it still look's pretty thick, like said shorten up that string and take your time

[emd023]

alright. ive been comparing my bow to this one here.

http://poorfolkbows.com/aelb5.htm

also this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kiXS3ytZVEQ

and ive been using a wood planer, rasp, and belt sander.

[burchett.donald]

 emd023, There's to many variables to compare thickness, even on the same wood type. Trust me on this...Stick with the rasp and you will see it move. The wood will tell you how thick it wants to be. I know how you feel, I hogged wood off my first bow out of frustration from the same thing and weakend one limb and over shot my weight. A few thousandths of an inch makes a big difference, I learned this in my trad years before making primitive bows.

[danlaw]

Looks like youre doing fine. Get a cabinet scraper - put a decent burr on it and you should be good from here on In.

[willie]

emd023

as don mentioned earlier, your bend is looking at this point, so you want to take the limbs down evenly. One way to do this is to rough up the limbs evenly with the rasp, then use a scraper to remove most of the rasp marks in long steady swipes down the length of the limb. try to use identical swipes with the scraper. with experience, after a few bows, you will soon learn when to put the belt sander away, but we have all erred  on the side of impatience, and not unplugged the power tool soon enough. If the first one takes a little longer this way, it is better than having to start another. (you will be shooting sooner)

willie

ps. a serviceable scraper can be had by holding a knife vertical. it helps to roll the edge some with a hard steel rod

[Gus]

All Staves/Boards are Not Created equal.
Even Staves or Boards taken from the same log or tree can behave noticeably different.
Experience will get you into The Ballpark as far as Dimensions go when laying out a bow.
But each Board or Stave will have it's own characteristics and variation that will cause it to tiller out differently from the next.

For me a Cabnet Scraper is a must.
Also a good Mill File and Burnishing Rod to maintain the scraper.
I got my Scrapers from Lee Valley.
A lot of folks make their own scrapers from old Saw Blades and such.

Go slow in the beginning.
It's real easy to take off too much wood.
And a pain in the backside to put it back on (lamination)...

Best of Luck to You.

-gus

[Del the cat]

Yes it's as thick as an ELB but I'll bet it's shorter!
Get that long string shortened.
As an illustration:-
With a very very very long string, if you pull the string back 6" the limb tips would come back 6"
BUT with a finished braced bow You pull the string back 6" the tips move back 2" so a short string gives you approx 3 to 1 leverage.
A bow drawing 28" only actually moves the tips about 8" !
So with a longs string it gives a false impression of what is going on.
Del

[4dog]

i almost put my eye out on bow #5,,, these guys are speaking gospel,, patience is the key...it will bend,,,,,,      i have a saying now.....go slow stupid...if you rush the bend it will break...and excercise that thing between scraping sessions....scrape scrape scrape....excercise....then check bend....scrape scrape scrape....excercise...etc...etc...   time is the key...take it!   good luck.

[Pat B]

Your bow feels too strong because you haven't taken enough wood off of it. Each bow and each piece of wood is different. When tillering a wood bow you remove wood until the limbs are bending evenly and together. Tillering is finished when both limbs are bending evenly and together and the bow draws to your draw length at your draw weight. Don't worry about what other bows look like. Concentrate on getting your bending well to your draw length and at the draw weight you desire.

[emd023]

thanks everyone! i will take my time. hopefully ill be posting a pic of a finished bow soon.

[BOWMAN53]

you know, on my first bow, i thought the same thing, turns out i just wasnt pulling that hard cuz i was afraid to break it. set up a pulley system with a luggage scale so you know how hard to pull.