"leaning" bow limb

[Gordon]

I'm working on a bow made from a 1" diameter sapling. Everything was going fine until I braced it - one of the limbs leans away from the handle and pulls the string out of alignment. I've tried steam bending the handle to compensate but it's not really helping. If I could just figure out how to straighten this thing out it would be a sweet little bow. I hate to give up on it. Anyone have any ideas?

[Hillbilly]

When you figure it out, let me know. I have about three or four of those in the Corner Of Shame.......

[Pat B]

Gordon, Have you tried removing wood from the strong side of the offending limb to bring it back to center?  I've noticed on pole bows that they are difficult to keep the string centered while tillering.    Pat

[Badger]

Gordon, I run into that same problem more than I like to admit. Sometimes using heat and over correcting can work sometimes nothing seems to work. I have several set aside waiting for a repair. Once in a while a lot of drawing the bow wil correct it, I had an elm bow a few years ago that was off by about 3" it seems like and it gradually just seemed to come in. Steve

[GregB]

Like Steve said, you might try and overcorrect using dry heat. Might also relieve thickness like Pat suggested to pull it over. If the tips are wide enough, you might gain some by narrowing the tip width on the one side and recut the one groove. Might also shorten the bow if it is long enough to help get back inline.

Often times it's a combination of several corrections that makes the difference.

[Gordon]

Thank you for all of the suggestions. Regarding dry heat, serviceberry does not seem to readily respond to the heat gun. I've heated it to the point where I am practically tempering the wood and it still refuses to move. It does, however, respond well to steam and I have attempted to correct the alignment, but have not had much success. Taking more wood off the "strong" side seems logical but I'm not sure which side that is. Is it the side that leans or the other side?

[Pat B]

It should be pulling towards the strong side.   Pat

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

If you have quite a few pounds still to give, it might just alling itself thru the tillering as you bend it more and more, at least that's what happenes to most of the bows I made that had that problem, ....and help it a bit by favoring the week side too

[Gordon]

Manny, I still have quite a few pounds to shed so maybe that will work.

Pat, I did a search on various forums and saw a lot of conflicting statements regarding which side is the strong side in this kind of scenario. It is not intuitive to me that the side that is leaning is the strong side. That's because in order to lean in a particular direction there should be less resistance to bending in that direction. That would seem to indicate it is actually the weak side. But I could have it completely backwards. Needless to say I'm totally confused...

[NOMADIC PIRATE]

The week side is the one where the string lyes out of,........I think , that's the one I always favored, ....hope I was right this all time

[Pat B]

Gordon. With my ADD or Dyslexia, I could have it backwards If I had it in my hand and could see what it was doing, I might have a better chance of answering your question.    Pat

[jamie]

gordon the last osage bow i did had the same thing and i tillered it out. if the bottom limb is leaning to the left when looking at the belly, work the right side. ive only had one bow that was so bad i couldnt fix it. it was fine at full draw but twisted in the hand after loosing the string and arra flight was horrible. i wrapped that sucker around a tree. peace

[Justin Snyder]

Gordon, I believe the info Pat and Manny are referring to is in TBB.   I can never remember which side it is. I'll try to find it for you. Justin

[George Tsoukalas]

Hold it up as if to shoot. If the string tracks to your right then remove wood from the left side of both limbs and exercise between wood removals-not you the bow.   Sometimes I just turn the bow around and shoot it the other way to save my forearm. Jawge

[Gordon]

Thank you George. That makes intuitive sense to me.