Yew Flatbow Project (Trade Bow) Finished Pics on pg. 3-4

[Weylin]

I decided to make my own thread for the trade bow that I'm making. I didn't want to clog up the main thread with lots of little nit-picky questions. The stave is from a large yew branch. Unfortunately I had to lay out the bow on the side of the branch due to some decayed areas and some serious checks that I had to avoid. It has some interesting character to it, some dips and bumps and a couple snakes. I have the bow bending a few inches and I have a pretty good taper going. I originally started out following John Strunk's chapter on the yew longbow from TBB1.

Due to the lopsided growth ring pattern (because the bow was laid out on the side of the branch) Keenan had advised my to go for more of a flat bow style to protect more against possible runoff problems. Luckily I still had quite a bit of wood to work with at that point so I could modify my layout a little. Instead of the 1 1/4" width at the fades that Mr. Strunk advised I managed to make it 1 1/2" at the fades, allowing me to make the bow thinner and flatter. so my current dimensions are 1 1/2" width at the fades narrowing to 3/4" (I plan to narrow the tips but allowed some wiggle room to start with.) John Strunk's article shows the thickness tapering about a 1/2" from fades to tip. I know that flat bows have less of a thickness taper than a narrower longbow. right now I still have that 1/2" taper but I'm not sure what I should reduce it to given my altered width. Would a 1/4 " make more sense considering the more drastic width taper? I know that ultimately what matters is how the limbs are working but I feel like i need a ball park to shoot for given my relative inexperience. Any advice is appreciated.

 Here are the pics that I have so far but they are a bit outdated. I have taken off a lot of wood since then. I will hopefully be able to update the pics tomorrow.

[Pat B]

This is gonna be good, Weylin   

[Weylin]

Thanks for the vote of confidence Pat.  I feel like I'm not out of the water yet. I've never dealt with the lopsided rings before and i'm not quite sure what to expect from them when the bow really starts bending.

[Pat B]

Just start removing wood evenly, checking the bend and exercise after each wood removal. Don't look at the growth rings. Get these limbs bending evenly and together and you'll have a beautiful bow.

[Weylin]

Thanks Pat. That's what I've been doing so far. I'm doing me best to follow all the dips and humps on the back, it sure is a roller coaster. Any thoughts on the thickness taper? like I said, the difference between the fades and the tipsis about a 1/2" right now, should  I reduce that or keep it about the same?

[Del the cat]

I'll post some figures for this one of mine (40#) to give you an idea.
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,28324.0.html
At widest point 43.6mm wide x 17mm thick
Thinest point 13.2 mm thick, this is about 4" from the tip which gets narrower and a tad thicker (14mm wide 15mm thick just before the tip overlay).
Sorry about the mix of inches and mm. I find mm great for smaller measurement but prefer inches for the long ones!
So when measuring limbs I take mm dimensions every 6" 
Hope this is some help
Del
PS. Looks like it's coming along great, and leaving the extra tip width to start with is V sensible so you can adjust the nocks/string line in case it wants to shift with that asymetric grain.

[DarkSoul]

Is the wood dry at this point? Growth ring orientation like that (lopsided) can seriously warp staves. Those rings are not 'bad' per se, but it makes for more difficult bowyery. Normally, the rings 'feather out'  on the belly of a bow, but those will not happen in this case. Furthermore, one side of the limb may be denser wood (=smaller rings) than the other side. That might mean the limb twists easily. You could very well end up with on side of the limbs thicker than the other wide, but that will become clear during tillering.
It's a nice stave with potential. With a growth ring orientation like that, you just need to be carefull because the wood is not uniform in the stave. With a branch (any wood), you should ideally take either the top quarter, pointing towards the sky, or the bottom quater, pointing towards the earth. The "left"  and "right" quarters/sides should be tossed away.

[Pat B]

I never measure thickness or thickness taper but remove wood so the limbs are bending evenly and together. If you try to prethink the thickness, and especially with growth rings like this one has and the irregulatities it has you are going to have problems.   Use your fingers to feel the thickness, between your thumb and fingers and let your sense of touch help you follow those hoop de doos to help you get the good taper.

[vinemaplebows]

I totally agree with Pat.

[Weylin]

@ Del, Thanks! That's a really cool looking bow. And your dimensions give me some good perspective. That's all good advice. 

@Darksoul, Thanks for chiming in. The wood should be plenty dry. it spent more than a year in log form, at least six months split in half and in a warm house and probably a month in roughed out bow form before it started bending. Your advice about taking the bow from the top or bottom of a branch is definitely good. In this case however, I could make a bow from the side of the branch or not at all. There was some serious checks in one end and some decayed areas with no sapwood that I had to avoid. I will definitely keep my eye on the twisting as I bend the bow more. I'm not relishing the idea of keeping one side thicker because I already have enough crazy things going on with my taper but I'll do what i have to do. Thanks!

@Pat, It's not my intention to continue to measure the taper through the whole tillering process. But with my lack of experience I feel like I need something concrete to work with to establish a roughly appropriate taper before I start bending the bow. I just don't have that 'feel' for what a bow should look and feel like yet. Once I start bending the bow I will forget the numbers and just trust my fingers and my eyes. Though I'm worried about my eyes playing tricks on me given how many dips and dives this bow has. It's not going to appear to bend evenly even if the limbs are doing even work. i think I'm going to have to listen to my fingers a little more than I'm used to. Thanks for all your input, it is most appreciated.

[Pat B]

One little trick I use when working with character staves is to squint my eyes while bending the stave. This eliminates the details so all you see is the bend. Give that a try.
  When I build a bow I get it to floor tiller(about 5/8" from handle to tip) then go to a long string(just long enough to go from t/t) and start bending. I mark areas that bend and flat areas, remove a little wood from the flat places and exercise then back to the tree. I generally only use a scraper from floor tiller on unless there is a drastic difference somewhere then a rasp to even that out.

[Buckeye Guy]

Just like Pat,s squinty eyes ,you can get back a little farther to help some times !
One thing I have done for the the deceitfull area is to unstrung the bow and use a straight edge to mark a straight line on the edge of the bow . Then when you string it and it bends you can lay the straight edge along the mark to see how much bend you are getting in that area just like you would if you held a straight edge along the belly of a limb !
I hope that is as clear as mud !
Guy

[Weylin]

Thanks for the tip, Pat. I will give the squinting a try.

That made perfect sense, Guy. That's a neat idea, I will use that as well.

[Elktracker]

Good Start Weylin, I will be  intersted to see how it goes for you. I understand that you had to  either make a bow from the side of the limb or no bow at all and that is probably what i would have done. I do know that with the using the side wood of the limb you are using some tension wood and some compression wood of the tree limb and that is why your rings look like they do. I would have to guess you will get some limb twist with using the side of the limb so allow a bit more wood on the side of the bow limbs that was closer to the compression side of the branch as it will be weaker. Trial and error is what you will have to do here, check your tiller looking at both sides of the bow as you go. This should make a nice bow, I wish you luck and ill be watching buddy.

Josh

[Weylin]

Thanks Josh, I'll just take it slow.