maple character bow!

[BowSlayer]

i know i already posted a bow today but i also finnished tillering this one today. it's made from maple, and has tons of knots and wavy grain. it was very difficult to tiller. ill keep it short and post more pics once i have the sanding and finnishing touches done. one limb was deflexed and the other straight with a hint of reflex. the bow is 63" long i tried stem bending 8 times but nothing. so i just wen't for it. the tiller looks of but it hits hard a quick measure showed 55#@28" which suppised me.



















brace picture


F/D picture




thanks, for looking

[adb]

Wow. Another interesting display. I don't buy 55#. I don't think that bow would hold up at 55#, with the severely uneven tiller and violated knots on the back. Can you not see how uneven your tiller is at brace? I'm actually very surprised it even survived being pulled to full draw once.

[WillS]

That looks like it was a challenge!

Have you got a pic of the stave before any tillering? You've got two massive hinges on the right limb, which don't look like they came from normal deflex, and the unbraced pic shows lots of set in those two places.  That might have been the natural deflex but normally a piece of wood won't have such focused deflex like that.  Looks exactly like string follow caused by hinges created during tillering. 

The left limb needs to be doing a whole lot more work from midlimb out as well.  You're getting there, just make sure you don't rush.  If a stave has deflex or reflex or a mix of both, the tillering should reflect that, but the limbs still need to work properly to spread the forces evenly.  With those hinges all the stress is focused in one area.

[BowEd]

Nice layout around all of your knots and wiggles.Looking forward to the final look of it after some tiller adustment there.You'll be lucky to get a 45# bow,but with lots of nice character.Pretty good for your length though.Nice bow.

[blackhawk]

That's one "squirrelly" piece of wood....that fits you well         n i dont need to add what's been said of the tiller 

[BowSlayer]

yess i do agree with whats been said. but i feel if i touch the left limb it will cause a terrible hinge. so i may change it later if it surrvives. im taking it down the range tonight and if it surrvives ill add some clear varnish, add some type of handle wrap and maybe even add a flopy rest if i can find some leather. but lets see if it survives.

[Joec123able]

Why the heck don't you smooth all those tool and pencil marks out that's like the best part besides shooting

[BowSlayer]

Why the heck don't you smooth all those tool and pencil marks out that's like the best part besides shooting

don't worry im doing that. i just wanted to show everyone how the build was going and to get some advice and second opinions on the tiller.

[rossfactor]

Shouldn't we try to be a bit more encouraging to the young man here...?  Yes there's plenty of mistakes but he's making bows... I remember, a decade and a half ago, cutting through bumps on the back of a bow, cause I though a smooth back was somehow important. You gotta learn somehow.

Gabe

[adb]

This young man is getting oodles of help on this site. What he chooses to do with the information is up to him.

[BowSlayer]

There aren't any violations on the back.  But there were two large knots on the handle section and I smoothed them off as there in a static portion of the handle.

[adb]

See those circular rings around the knots? Those are violations.

[The Gopher]

Its far more important to have a bow that might be underweight but well tillered, than poorly tillered at any weight, and just because a handle may be non-bending, doesn't mean there is no stress there, especially on the back of the handle.

Good job on getting your hands dirty though, my first bows were no different.

[rossfactor]

You don't want top cut through knots on the back of the bow. It necessarily creates violations (as ADB pointed out).

Gabe

[BowSlayer]

the first two pics are the belly, but there are no violations on the back of the limbs. im going to tiller it a tad more and do some test shooting.