Osage...twist in handle...ideas?

[Catahoula]

Hi,

This osage is a rascal.  When I tillered it it didn't show any twist in the handle...now it does.  It lifted a splinter and is backed with deer rawhide.  The twist is to the point it is throwing the arrows off so I gotta fix her or...  Any ideas?  I haven't run into this before.  As you can tell I am still learning and got a long way to go. 

Rand

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Pat B]

You're holding the damned thing upside down! 
 Rand, the twist in the handle will be hard to fix unless you add more wood around it and reshape the whole handle. You can adjust the arrow pass so it is lined up with the limbs and that might help.

[George Tsoukalas]

I don't see a twist? What are the arrows doing? Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

Are you saying the string is off center? Jawge

[artcher1]

That twist in or near the handle really causes a lot of arrow flight problems as you've discovered. That creates limb twist as the bow is drawn/released and makes good arrow flight near impossible. If your bow is finished then consider cutting in a shelf and that should help some. Radius or rounded bellies of the limbs help eliminate some twist also in my personal opinion.

If you encounter that situation again on a stave just cut the thing in the center and swap ends and splice back together for proper limb alignment.

ART B

[George Tsoukalas]

Well, if the answer to my question was yes....I've made a  bow or 2 or more like that. You probably succumbed to the prevailing theory of shooting  it on the off side so that the bow is center shot. Not a good idea because you invariably bounce the string off your forearm. I've had some success flipping the bow around and shooting it that way.  Sometimes changing the way the bow is gripped helps too. Jawge

[sailordad]

i dont see any twist  in it
could we get a pic loking down the bow from one tip to the other
aloso could we get a better full draw pic that is taken from more of a perpindicular angle (that draw photo looks like your quatering away from the camera)

[artcher1]

His first picture shows the limb twist quite well I think.

Rand, if you had caught that twisting early on before you added the rawhide you could've helped things out by heating and twisting your limbs near handle. Personally, I would leave that for a last option now. Getting the bow cut closer to center and using a loose grip will greatly improve arrow flight. ART B

[Catahoula]

OK,

Pat-sorry about the upside down pic!  When I shoot an arrow all is fine until the back end of the arrow wacks the handle thereby throwing the arrow off about a foot and making a loud wack...I started cutting a slanted arrow rest in it then stopped cause I figured I would take it to the Classic or Pat's Camp-o or to a knap in and get ideas...but then I got brave and put up these pictures figuring you guys could give me some advice.  I thank you for any thoughts...sure would like to make a good un someday.  Lent my bowyer's bible to someone and have lost my way...guess I better order another one!!  So cutting the shelf might be a good way to go?

Thanks again for any thoughts,

Rand 

[George Tsoukalas]

I would not cut a shelf. I think you have a tuning issue. Arrows do not whack the side of the bow because of a small twist in the bow. IMHO. They do so for principally 2 reasons. One, the brace height is too low and/or two, because your arrows are stiff. Really the twist is minimal at least for my 62 year old eyes. There's tuning info on my site. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/selfbowcare.html

[sailordad]

ive got to agree with George (not just cause he knows his shanizzl either)
after your description of the arrows flight problem,it does sound like a tuning issue

i have several bows with some prope twist and no flight problems
brace height and arrow spine 

[Pat B]

I have to agree with George too. Sounds like an arrow problem.   I think you are trying to over think these simple machines. We ain't building Swiss watches here, just a simple stick and string. Everything else we're just burdon ourselves with.
  Is that the bow I gave you the rawhide for? Her tiller looks pretty good.

[Catahoula]

OK,

No shelf...I think I will leave it in the closet where it is hiding out until I can get a real bowyer to look at the twist and arrow flight and such.  I rush around too much and this will be a good lesson for me in patience!!  Pat...yep that is the rawhide and the reason I didn't post a picture of the back is because of my lousy dye job!!  Here I am almost 64 and got LOTS to learn.  (Gonna start learning banjo too)  I heard somewhere that learning new stuff all the time might chase "oldtimers" away.

Thanks for the advice!

Rand

[mullet]

 From what I can tell from the last, upside down picture, the bow is tracking too far to the left, or side of the bow. You probably scraped too much wood off one side of the stave and the bow is twisting to the weak side. And the top limb in the full draw looks like it is not far from hinging, coming out of the Fade.
 I'd be carefull taking wood off near the upper handle area. Then, again, might be the camera angle.

[Eric Krewson]

I would heat the handle and straighten that sucker out. I can do amaxing things with a heat gun on some really thick wood.