New Yew bow build along

[mullet]

You made it look easy, Ian. I let my stave rock in the vice the same way. When I don't want it moving I bace the tip against my hip.

[DC]

I put a prop under the tip.

[poplar600]

Nice.

Also nice to see the growth ring thing put to bed.....hopefully

How do you work around knots on the back?

[Strichev]

Nice video - too bad the stave was so perfect, it would be more educational to see the transformation of a knotty, twisted piece of yew.    Just kidding, the video's great and the bow just seems just... perfect.

Growth rings not being chased? And I've almost gone blind from trying to follow a ring on my current bow!

[Ian.]

Nice video - too bad the stave was so perfect, it would be more educational to see the transformation of a knotty, twisted piece of yew.    Just kidding, the video's great and the bow just seems just... perfect.

Growth rings not being chased? And I've almost gone blind from trying to follow a ring on my current bow!

As long as you don't take off loads in one go you'll be fine. On this bow they gradually taper off towards the tip, spaced an inch or so away from each other.

[FilipT]

Beautiful bow Ian. I downloaded video so I could have it at any time as a reference for my future longbows.

I wanted to ask you something. I am starting now with building warbows and I decided to make somewhere 70 - 80# longbow from hazel to be entry into whole heavier bows build. I used dimensions from Norwegian Warbows website and bow barely bends at floor tiller, more like one limb bends nice and other doesn't.

I am curious as to why that is, as I saw you saying multiple times, how when you make longbow according to dimensions of, for example, MR bows, you get almost tillered one, that just needs minor adjustment on tiller and is even ready for brace before putting it at tiller.

[Ian.]

What I go by is the MR dimensions with wood I know to be very similar but mostly I weigh the wood and make sure the mass is right for the bow weight I want to make. If you don't have the 'Mass Calculator' I can easily email it to you - get my email address from my website.

When you have the right mass of wood to make the bow weight you want and you get the stave very close in taper and size so that it bend well first time then yep, just brace it and tiller quickly.

The caveat is that it took me many dozens of bows to be able to get the tiller almost perfect from the roughing out stage.

 

[FilipT]

I could tell you for a fact that my current bow build has been both tapered in width and thickness with calipers, meaning, its almost perfect according to measurements. That is why I was wondering why does limbs not work evenly in floor tillering. I don't have yet wall tiller so I don't know how it really bends but I am not satisfied with floor tiller.

So the key is lots of experience and bit of the science. I would really like to get my hands on that calculator. Thanks for offering.
Is it "sales@bostonbows.co.uk" your mail or you mean some other?

[Ian.]

Yeah that's the email - I wasn't going to post it on PA as I didn't know if it was allowed.

[FilipT]

I don't want to open new topic for my question, so I will put it here as its about mass calculator. What should I put into this variables:
- nock position (+ reflex, - deflex)
- handle (non bending)

If I tiller a longbow, do I put "0" into handle as everything bends? If I tiller bow with non moving handle, do I put 8" in it, as I make handle length 4" and 2" fades from both sides?

What means nock position and reflex, deflex in it?

[Ian.]

Nock position should be the actual bow as it is to begin with. So if the stave has 2" reflex then -2 and if it has deflex naturally then +2. Reflex will make a lighter bow and deflex will make a heavier bow.

Steve's advice on the handle area was a 4" non-bending handle on ELB's, that seems to work pretty well. Although every part of the bow should bend, the calculator works best with that value added.

Just have a play and change variable one at a time; you'll see that differences will normally be very small +/- 20 grams for an inch of reflex. So don't worry too much about getting it perfect, work to a slightly wider goal to start with.

[FilipT]

Wait, reflex is when the tips looking from side are pointing towards "target" when unbraced and in deflex is when they point away from "target" when unbraced. How will reflex be lighter bow then? I am confused...

[cadet]

Reflex would, all other things being equal, require less mass of working wood in the bow to achieve the same draw weight/energy storage, would it not?
Where does one find this mass calculation?  TBB IV?  Must get that...

[Ian.]

Wait, reflex is when the tips looking from side are pointing towards "target" when unbraced and in deflex is when they point away from "target" when unbraced. How will reflex be lighter bow then? I am confused...

When I say weight I mean mass, (physical mass of the bow) A reflexed bow will be lighter all things being equal.

[FilipT]

Ok, thank you for clarification.