[Tillering Finished!!!] Well, here goes nothing! (First build)

[hobbyaccumulator]

I have shot a bow exactly once in my life. It was my aunt's compound bow and I was 11 years old. That was 12 years ago and I haven't touched a bow since then. I am worse than a novice at shooting a bow.

I recently met a  co-worker -  who is practically a luddite, dude refuses to get a cell phone - and he told me about how he makes bows as a hobby. It inspired me to look into how bows are made and when i discovered that it doesn't actually require too many tools to get started i decided i'd give it a try.

I don't have any tools except a hammer and drill -which are my housemates - and I don't do woodwork often and the last time I really made something from wood completely from scratch was in woodshop in 8th grade - made a barn owl house and some small other things. But I don't have a collection of tools by any means and I am very cautious about where i spend my money.

I went out and purchased some red oak today from home depot, sorted through about 30 planks and this was the Golden boy of the lot - straightest grain I could find and it's not warped. Went and got some clamps from harbor freight. And my Amazon package with tightbond III, a cheapo coping saw (doubt I will need it), and my 9" Shinto rasp should be arriving later today.

Still need some files and sandpaper but this should get me started on the build. And i have no idea where to buy bow strings from for tillering and eventually using the bow. Luckily I have some old Douglass fir 2x4s laying in the garage I can build a tillering tree with.

I'll be following Sam Harper's PoorFolkBows Red Oak build along. I wanted to follow the TradGang "So you wanna build a bow" pyramid bow build along because the shape of the bow is much more aesthetic (the hourglass figure on the handle, see page 3 of the thread) but I'm trying to stay on a budget and the 3/4 x 4 inch boards were 5 bucks a foot vs the 3/4x1.5inch ones which were $1.43 /ft. Maybe next time

Using this thread to track my progress and to get advice - all advice is welcome!

P.S. if anyone lives in the Bay Area and could offer in-person help (or tips on finding free wood) I would very much appreciate any mentoring!

[Stick Bender]

Good luck with your build there is a good Pyramid build a long by Bubba posted over on the build along sticky also next time your at Habor Freight pick up a 36 grit sanding belt an cut it down and glue it to a flat board they are great for flating limbs if you don't have  books on bow building a good place to start is the bowyers bible series avalible on kindle or hard copy might answer some of your questions  but the warning none of them tell you is this craft can take over your life 

[PatM]

Why not meet up with your co-worker?

[hobbyaccumulator]

Good luck with your build there is a good Pyramid build a long by Bubba posted over on the build along sticky also next time your at Habor Freight pick up a 36 grit sanding belt an cut it down and glue it to a flat board they are great for flating limbs if you don't have  books on bow building a good place to start is the bowyers bible series avalible on kindle or hard copy might answer some of your questions  but the warning none of them tell you is this craft can take over your life 

What do you mean "cut it down and glue it to a flat board"? Like make a 'sanding board' where its like a cat scratch post but for sand paper?

I have heard the Traditional Bowyers Bible recommended a ton of times. I plan to grab a copy but i am eager to get my hands dirty and am a slow reader so if i told myself to read the entire thing before i started i would have lost interest by then But i will grab it someday soon and read over it.

I am a serial hobbyist so bowyer is going to just add to the list of other hobbies currently running my life :p

Why not meet up with your co-worker?

I would but I live and work at my companies California location and he lives and works at the New Mexico location, i met him during a business trip down there.

[Stick Bender]

Yes good comparison cat scratch board just glue it flat and use it like a rasp with a pyramid type bow the limbs are more of a constant thickness and it will help in flatting the limbs I have only ever made one pyramid bow it was the second bow that I ever made & designed the handle wrong , I didn't have any bow building books at the time ether & it broke before I tillered to full draw !

[hobbyaccumulator]

What do i use to string the bow? and where do i buy it?

Is paracord okay?

[make-n-break]

Another good investment for you as a beginner is the Traditional Bowyers Bible Vol 1. Its about $14 online and one read through will answer more questions than you could ask here in months, and in less time. I didn't read it until two years into bow making and I wish I would have discovered it right away. It would have increased my early success rate and answered so many questions for me.  It's a must have for a new bowyer in my opinion.

[Stick Bender]

You can use b-50 Dacron  string & make your own string there is a lot of utube vids on string making , I agree with make-n-break the book would put you light years a head in knowledge and save you a lot of hard knocks , but that's just my thinking you might be different.

[Eric Krewson]

PM me your address and I will send you a tillering Gizmo, real handy for first time bowyers for getting and even bend in each limb.

[hobbyaccumulator]

PM me your address and I will send you a tillering Gizmo, real handy for first time bowyers for getting and even bend in each limb.

Holy cow are you serious? That's so generous of you! I'll PM you right now!

[loon]

What I don't like of Sam Harper's tutorial is the width taper (I prefer pyramid - better performance and easier to tiller?) and the fiberglass mesh backing is ugly and might be kinda ineffective. Something like linen cloth would be a lot better imo. TBB 3 or 4 talks about plant fiber/cloth backings.

I got all of the TBB e-books from Amazon. It has a trial kindle subscription.

I think a hatchet, or ryoba saw would work better to get the width taper than just the Shinto rasp or coping saw. Though a bandsaw or table saw would be much easier. I want a jigsaw attachment for my black+decker matrix..

Maybe i'll make you a string, though all I have now is this polyester that I got for whipping arrows.. would just be one loop flemish

[loon]

check this out if you haven't already - http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,35312.0.html

[Hawkdancer]

Real paracord(550 cord) is probably good for tillering and short brace as it has tensile strength of  550
Lbs (Mil-spec)make sure you read the label before buying it, so you get the real stuff, some of the offerings are not anywhere near that strong.  I think it is too thick to use as a bowstring, for that use B-50 or similar.  I can make you a string, too.
Hawkdancer

[hobbyaccumulator]

Big thank you to @loon and @hawkdancer for the offer to make me a string! I will purchase some 550 paracord for tillering.

So i got started this morning and was interrupted half way into roughing the width so i only have one side of the bows limb width roughed out.

Is the rasp supposed to get clogged? I kept having to de-clog my shinto rasp with a toothpick.

So far it's looking good though, taking a lot of elbow grease to rough it but the shinto rasp works fairly well. For the first 4 minutes i was going perpendicular to the grain and it was making a ton of noise and not taking a ton of wood, then i remembered going with the grain is the right method and it become much easier. This would definitely be better with a jigsaw or  hatchet but i sure am glad as hell i did not decide to do the pyramid bow build on tradgang as that uses a 4 inch wide board which would have been a ginormous pain to rough down with only my shinto rasp.

So i got a tad carried away on one side and it has a clear kink in the taper. Here you can see photos of each limb with the side i rasped and the side that has yet to be rasped. One of them is a clean slope to the 1/2 top but the other side has a kink bend near my 15" mark and then continues the taper smoothly. Is the kink going to be an issue? should i taper both sides out to 16" to even the transition out?

Stay tuned for more noob-ey updates!

[jaxenro]

Rasps get clogged I usually tap mine on the table to clear it