Noob question about draw weight

[ccase39]

Hi all, first off I want to introduce myself and say what a great community you have here. I am kind of new to bow building but feel I am getting decent at it. A few years back I found poor folks build along site and made a couple of red oak bows based on the tutorial. About 6 months ago I started again and have made 5 flatbows out of Osage that turned out nice. I watched some YouTube videos in addition to the tutorials so I am learning. All of my bows have turned out about 40# and kind of just wound up how they wound up. I am ready to try and learn how to manipulate the draw weight and length. Got any tips?

[bowandarrow473]

I always start my bows out heavy and floor tiller thoroughly and then go straight low brace. I then have plenty of meat left to tiller the bow to just about any weight I want. Length wise, I like about 62-68 inches as I feel they shoot smother when about that long, longer and you might have a problem with maneuverability, shorter and I feel as though they are harder to control.

[DC]

Have your bows been board bows or made from staves? Have you had to do much tillering?

[bowandarrow473]

Oh, and design plays a big factor too, a .75in wide bow won't make a #150 bow without some problems. So make sure your design is appropriate to the weight you want.

[ccase39]

Have your bows been board bows or made from staves? Have you had to do much tillering?

Yes I forgot to add that all of mine have been board bows so far. I usually rough it out and use the belt sander to taper it down from around 1/2 inch at the fades to 1/4 inch at the tips. I go from there and take a little off at a time until it looks and feels right. Then I tiller it however I need to.

[DC]

Then arriving at a chosen weight is just removing more or less wood during the tillering.

[ccase39]

At what point do I have to worry about it cracking? Im reading the Traditional Bowyers Bible as we speak but have only gotten a few pages in. Should I simply not taper it as much?

[Del the cat]

Decide on your target weight...then always pull to your target weight Unless you can see uneven tiller (in which case correct the tiller and try again).
Go to a short string as soon as the tips are pulling back 6-7 "
If you always pull it to 50# you will end up with a 50# bow....
some people are frightened of pulling full weight early. They pull 20# and wonder why they end up with a 20# bow!
Del

[George Tsoukalas]

I think Del gave you good advice.
There are buildlongs on my site.
Jawge
http://traditionalarchery101.com/

[Eric Krewson]

If your start at 1/2" at the fades doesn't give you enough room to manipulate the weight, start with a thicker starting point, put up the belt sander and slowly scrape the wood away while checking tiller with a tillering gizmo.

[Pat B]

Amen what Eric said!

[Del the cat]

At what point do I have to worry about it cracking? Im reading the Traditional Bowyers Bible as we speak but have only gotten a few pages in. Should I simply not taper it as much?

You can only get a certain amount of draw weight from any piece of timber.
For more weight you have to start with more width or thickness.
You can't "Not taper as much" else you just mess up the tiller.
If you have no taper (or too little) the bow will bend too much near the middle... if you want to test this, just flex a straight bit of timber and see where most of the bend is.
This post from my blog shows the effect, just using width taper (e.g like a pyramid bow):-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/pyramid-taper-test.html
Del

[Badger]

  That was a cool test Del

[ccase39]

Thanks guys!