Advice on hickory/tigerwood warbow tiller

[mikekeswick]

Yep odds on its ipe. Especially from a decking company.
Well for upto 120 -130lbs I would have made it 1 1/8th wide at the handle maybe roughed out to 1 1/4 to give me room to work.
So first job is definately to reduce the width. Your thicknesses look ok at this point. If you leave that width bad things will happen!
What weight are you shooting for? It is essential to pull to the same weight all the time with these sort of bows (assuming the tiller is good!).
The way it's bending now looks pretty good.
Remember that although all the bow should be bending that bending should still be elliptical. Keep an eye on set and you should see what I mean.

 

[Del the cat]

Get you tillering string as short as possible and winch it back to approaching FULL target draw weight, keeping an eye on it. If the tips come back 6" or a bit more you can get a short string on it.
If the tips don't come back 6" you need to take more weight off.
Don't worry that you are over straining it. 100# on a long string is much less force on the limbs than 100# pulled on a braced bow.
To explain that apparent contradiction.
My last 100# bow needed 60# on a string which would just slip onto the bow to pull the tips back to 6".
Once a short string was on it and it was braced to 6" that 60# has dissapeared and it only takes 5# to draw it the next inch!
Hope that makes sense and gives you some idea of why it's hard to brace.
So to sumarize, expect to use a good old weight to get the tips back to brace distance.
Del

[ScottRoush]

Okay great....  I've got a solid plan now!   I didn't even think of the width.. thanks for pointing that out.   All makes sense Del... I was hoping you would chime in. Mick Maxen has nothing but good things to say about your work.

Bodkins did you say!?  I just heat treated this one.. forged from W1 drill rod and I literally just hammered out the socket from a piece of twist pattern weld left over from one of my last swords. I've had an idea for a while to make a stand-alone arrow piece with display based on Robert Louis Steven's 'The Black Arrow'... and then maybe a 'Black Arrow' from the Hobbit.

[Del the cat]

Cheers , yeah Mick is a top bloke.
Regarding the width, of course you don't want it too wide, but don't taper the tips too narrow too early, a bit of extra width allows some lateral adjustment of string line and can help avoiding twist. Same as rounding the belly, I don't do that until it's pulling back about half way. A rectangular cross section is just easier to work, judge, feel and measure. Obviously don't leave razor sharp corners.
Another thing with laminates.... please round off the back a bit near the end of the process else it looks like it's been machined
Most of the Mary Rose bows are nearer round or an inflated square section (if you get what I mean) than a Victorian high arched  'D', mind the actual D in this typeface isnt too bad if you round off the corners of the straight back
Del

[WillS]

And even further off topic... I love your Tiodhlac sword!  I know it's based on fantasy, but it actually bears a striking resemblance to the Albion Ringeck - something that would have been used in the early part of the 15thC and quite possibly seen on the battlefield of Azincourt or Poitiers.  It has that beautiful diamond cross section you start to see towards the end of the 14thC as heavy plate armour was getting more common.  It's the type of sword I need to add to my collection soon...

Have you ever thought about making a similar display piece to the Roy King Trophy?



Type 16, Tudor Bodkin/Towton Warhead and Type 7 fixed to an offcut of yew - stunning looking thing made by Simon Stanley but would probably make a really beautiful gift or display piece.  If I had the means and method to learn forging it's the first thing I'd attempt!

[ScottRoush]

Will...  Yeah Tiodhlac is my favorite that I've made.  I like to keep my 'fantasy' as close to reality as possible. Sticking to historical proportion, geometry, etc.. but playing with textures and materials.  But I've been itching to do some sort of replica soon... I think that it's good to go back to that every once in a while to stay grounded.  I want to make just a nice, clean bastard sword using some of Peter Johnsson's medieval design theory.

Thanks for showing that trophy. That is just the sort of thing I've been wanting to get ideas on.  I have a lot of old 18th century wrought iron cut nails.. I'd like to hammer those into a beautiful, old piece of wood and use to mount the arrow.  But I like the idea of mounting one beautiful, complete arrow and then several bodkin examples mixed about like that trophy.

Well I took a shot at hanging a 100 pounds from my tiller string. A. I need a more robust string. B. I'm getting old.

[Goose Fletch]

In this case, would Scott's bow require trapping on the back? From what I've read (unfortunately i don't have any hands on experience) isn't 1/4" hickory a bit thick? Would 1/8 be a bit more suitable and require no trapping? Im actually just starting the same exact type of bow in April =)