tricks to avoiding frets in BL?

[Lee Lobbestael]

Does anyone on here have any tips or tricks to avoiding frets in black locust? I have tried twice so far and on both I thought that the tiller was fine and that I went plenty slow and they were plenty wide enough but still I found chrysals in the bellies of them! I have more stave I want to try but would like to know if there is anything I can do to minimize the chance of ruining another bow.

[BOWMAN53]

Wide and PERFECT tiller.

[BOWMAN53]

And a good heat treating helps alot.

[Lee Lobbestael]

ok i'm going 67" long and two inches wide

[huisme]

These are the only bows I have on the internet, but I've made a few other BL bows without trouble by keepign it wide, or extremely well tillered.

http://imgur.com/a/r9EYZ

http://imgur.com/a/mkQrt

[mikekeswick]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,38697.msg517454.html#msg517454

Black locust is one of the best woods there is (imo!), I'd take a good stave of b.locust over any other wood.
As for tricks.....well the trick is getting a perfect tiller very early and don't worry about bracing it early. If the tiller is good you should be fine. Don't bother going really wide it isn't necessary and will actually increase your chance of getting chyrsals in a counterintuative sort of way. If the back isn't very crowned already then you should definately trap the back. Locust's 'problem' is the same as many other woods excessive strength in tension compared to it strength in compression.

[Lee Lobbestael]

wow those are some sweet bows! Love that recurve! How does going wider increase the odds of developing chrysals tho?

[Pat B]

Belly tempering seems to help with the compression strength of locust...at least for me it did and I'm terrible with locust.

[blackhawk]

Layman's terms....

Proper moisture content and seasoned wood

Proper design for the intended weight and draw....(not all locust is created equall either)

A properly executed belly temper ....(not to dark with locust)

Then a properly executed tiller....(much can be said of this and its not about the end at full draw...its everything you do BEFORE full draw is reached.....)

Black locust is a bowyers classroom on how to properly execute all the critical and most important areas of making great bows....

And I LOVE black locust...top notch bow wood in my book

[autologus]

I have a 57"L 4"w stave of BL and this will help me a lot.  Although I am a little concerned about it being as short as it is, it looks as though I will have to make a bend in the handle bow from it.  I believe it is wide enough to get two staves from it so I guess I could splice them together.  It looks as though I will have my work cut out for me with this stave.  At the very least I will get a good education.

Grady

[artcher1]

Everything Blackhawk said. With the emphasis on seasoned wood..........Art

[BowEd]

To me it sounds like doing an excellent job on floor tillering is really helpful along with very even bending long stringing here.
By seasoned you mean 6 months or so after roughing it out [storing inside the house]or until it quits losing moisture at 50% humidity for two weeks?Kind of a technical question but the experts are on this one so I gotta ask......LOL.

[artcher1]

Air-dried, seasoned wood for a minimum of 2-3 yrs. Wood that is tempered my seasonal changes. Then reduced to bow stage and M/C brought down to appropriate levels after that. This conclusion is mostly based on arrow-making material where best performance is achieved, but I've always said you can learn more about bow wood from making arrows .........Art B

[PEARL DRUMS]

Locust seems to vary greatly from stick to stick. Ive had terrible luck and good luck. Im learning more about looking at each pieces density. It seems to matter. I have two identical staves of locust cut almost the same time, but in different states. Their physical weight is drastically different.

[artcher1]

I know just what you mean Pearly. That BL bow I made from those billets you sent me I can only take outside and shoot on a sunny day. Any other time I'm afraid the darn thing will float away !