Share your tips and tricks.

[Chippintuff]

Looks good.

WA

[mullet]

This thread is at the "Top".

[Chippintuff]

Bring on the tips folks. You know a book full, from choosing bow trees, to cutting and making staves, to curing, to all the wood working to make the bow and tiller it, to making string, to making and straightening arrows and many many more things. Come on with it.

WA

[bjrogg]

+1 I see they moved this to the top that's great. I'm not sure if it needs reorganization or not. I know for myself I typically go to the last page of these type threads and see what's new. If I want to rehash something I go through them till I find it. It would be nice to have the links to a more in depth thread you could look up. I'm just really hoping people add their big or little tips and tricks.
Bjrogg

[osage outlaw]

Another tip.....Take some time to rough out a years worth of bow blanks.  Leave them wide and long enough that you can make any type of bow from them.  Take the limbs to an inch thick or so.  Stash them inside the house where the humidity stays constant and mark the date on them.  Give them a few months to dry out.  When you start to use up these blanks replace them with new ones.  Your bows will hold their reflex better and take less set.  The humidity in your workshop or garage fluctuates with the weather a lot more than it does inside a heated and air conditioned house. 

[lebhuntfish]

Thats great advice Clint! I just wish I could follow that myself.  I never seam to feel like roughing out that many staves at a time.  Maybe a couple 3.

Patrick

[bjrogg]

Good advice Clint and keep replacing those staves to.
This tip seems so simple that probably some of you already use it but her it is anyway. When trying to mark out the rough shape of my bows it can be difficult use a straight edge. Especially for tips if you bend in some recurve. I always have a couple hacksaw blades with my bow tools. I use them for lots of things from making initial cut for tip notches to scoreing surfaces for gluing. One of the things I use them for is a pliable straight edge for marking my bow.
Bjrogg

[bubby]

Well in staves where straight is not the norm for edge thickness I make marks every 6-8" then using the back of the stave I hold the marker on the mark and take off connecting the dots. On the back profile find the centerline then take a piece of leather the width ya want and make a small notch in the center of it. Then just get the notch on the centerline mark and mark both edges. Then connect the dots

[DC]

How do we decide what should go in "Tips and tricks" and what should go in "How to's and Build-a-longs"?

[Pat B]

Tips and tricks is for those little time and work savers. The How To is for everything else.   

[paulsemp]

One of the best things I learned how to do was use my fingers like calipers. Cody (AKA missile master / married man / no time for us) started beating it in my head.  if you take your hands  on both sides of the limb and pinch together your index and thumb and run them all the way down the limb you can feel every High spot and low spot and whether the limbs is thicker on one side or the other. When you take your time you'll be amazed at how close you are on first brace right away. Almost impossible to develop a hinge

[BowEd]

Well in staves where straight is not the norm for edge thickness I make marks every 6-8" then using the back of the stave I hold the marker on the mark and take off connecting the dots. On the back profile find the centerline then take a piece of leather the width ya want and make a small notch in the center of it. Then just get the notch on the centerline mark and mark both edges. Then connect the dots

+1.It's the way I learned myself to  do.

[bjrogg]

Use all your senses most of my bows I can tell blindfolded.

When I have a reall nasty abrupt sideways bend to straighten. I clamp a 1x3 standing straight up along side my caul in the vice, slightly before where the bend starts. I start heating at end of caul get a couple good clamps on then as I heat bend I lightly pull sideways bend out by bending it against 1x3. Then just continue on down the limb.
Hopefully I explained that so you can understand. Here's a few pictures to help.
Bjrogg

PS wish I had pictures before

[DC]

Just tried this idea for marking bow nocks. It works pretty slick. Cut a piece of cardboard(doesn't have to be Frosted Flakes ) in a "V" like the first picture. Wrap it around the tip, centering the "V" on the belly. make sure the legs of the "V" are lined up and mark with a pencil. You're on your own when it comes to sawing or filing

[txdm]

Just tried this idea for marking bow nocks. It works pretty slick.

  Awesome!