A look at Faceted Tillering

[Wooden Spring]

OK, so I just finished going through Dean Torges' book again: "Hunting the Osage Bow" and I was particularly impressed with his "faceted tillering" technique, so I gave it a go on a hickory backed white oak bow I had glued up.

So far, what you can see in the first picture is my CAD impression of what he was talking about. It's just a rendering that I pinned up in my shop to keep me on track while I was working.

The pictures of the bow are after I have worked it down a bit. Since my white oak was 3/4" thick, and my hickory was 1/8" thick, what you see is the faceted tillering after it has been sanded down to 3/4" thick - hence the flat on the top. (I've penciled in a little on the edges so they're more visible in the shot) I did all of the work with an angle grinder with a 40 grit sanding disk. Yeah, there's a few bumps, but I've still got a lot of work to do, as it's not near floor tillered at all at this point, so I figured a few imprefections are OK.

Here's the takeaway (assuming I've done this correctly) this is a much faster way of initially reducing the bow stave into something that is workable. In 30 minutes, I've done what took me...  Well, I'm ashamed to say HOW long it took me before with hand tools. AND, because I've still got wood to remove, the slight imperfections remaining will be worked out later. And, the technique produces a bow with a much more natural ovoid cross section. 

Thoughts???

[Joec123able]

Hmm id say that's pretty cool I've never tryed anything like it

[adb]

I used to use a faceted tillering approach when I first started making bows, but I don't anymore.

[Jim Davis]

I do that with a band  saw after cutting the limbs to within a quarter inch or so of finished thickness. After cutting the facets, I fly at the middle of the belly with a course rasp and bring it down to match the edges. Of course, I am doing triangular limbs (they don't REALLY look like pyramids, you know, actually more like an obelisk ) and the limbs are uniform thickness.

Been doing this for a long time. Don't recall where I heard of it or if it just seemed obvious.

[koan]

I use this method 99% of the time. It is a much faster way to make use of your rasp and IMO helps prevent them nasty dips and virtually impossable to get a bad tear-out if wood is removed from edge to peak... Tillering by scraping a narrower peak vs. a whole limb width is what i love most about it..all that bein said, i like to make short bendy's with a high crown with a VERY flat belly. Faceting on this style of bow it seams to not help(me) much. Just my 2cents.... Brian

[Badger]

   I use a varition of facet tillering. I like my finished product more flat than oval so I primarily just use it getting to floor tiller. I end up with a very slight oval when finished.

[Dances with squirrels]

I use the faceting method on all my bows, but get the overall thickness closer before adding the facets, so I never have as high or as narrow a peak as what you show there.

[SLIMBOB]

Same here.  I tiller all of them this way, but never have a crown on the belly when I am done.  I get it to floor tiller using this method.  Once it's floor tillered, very little wood needs to be removed, and a flat belly typically is what I'm shooting for, so I am still taking wood from the center, but by the time it's done it's flat.

[Jim Davis]

"Faceting" is just an age-old wood carving approach. Probably been around for thousands of years.  None of us invented it, but it is so obvious we would have if hadn't already been known.

[mikekeswick]

Remember Dean's method is for osage in particular eg. it can take a crowned belly. This method means you get a real smooth transition from the end of a latewood ring down through the earlywood.
This method isn't just for getting to floor tiller it's for tillering itself.

[Pappy]

I do about like Badger.
   Pappy

[Wooden Spring]

I really appreciate all the comments. When I started out making bows, I didn't even know about this site or the fact that there's a wealth of knowledge that folks are willing to share. I've never been taught how to do any of this stuff, so everything I know I either picked up from this site or from reading books. I tend to be a bit nerdy when it comes to things, and I can over-analyze a peanut butter sandwich...  It's cool to know though that this method is so readily used with great results.

[Pat B]

I do like Badger and Pappy, using the faceted method to reach floor tiller.

[Springbuck]

  For me, this kind of happens by default in a slower way during tillering.

 MOSTLY, to me, it is a great way to not screw up too fast while roughing a bow out.  It's very useful for that.

  Faceted tillering prevents me from suddenly looking up and noticing "Ah.... that spot is WAY too thin.  Crap".