need help with the tillering

[tom sawyer]

I think that left limb is bending pretty hard about a third of the way out, might scrape a few times at midlimb.  I liked the bend in the right limb better.  Just goes to show you how different people view these things.

I would suggest you run a short straightedge along the belly of the braced bow and judge your degree of bend by the gap under the edge.  That won't lie, it'll tell you if you are getting a smooth even bend.

And when you are close to done like this, its time for a few photos of you drawing the bow.  They often look different when being drawn by a human.

Its looking darned good though, these backed bows hold up very well.  Whats your unbraced profile looking like?

[huntersteve]

I'll take some more photo's tonight or tomorrow....unbraced the bow has taken about 1-1 1/2" set....I'll post more pics later...I'm glueing on a piece of deer antler for the arow rest and covering it with a wrapped leather handle.....steve

[Justin Snyder]

Lennie, it just goes to show you how different things look when you come back and look later. I agree with your views.  Both limbs have spots that are bending to much.  But looking at it now I would say the left is worse. 
Steve, take several scrapes off both limbs avoiding the marked areas.  As for weight, I dont know what it pulls now so I could never venture a guess as to what it will loose. 

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[huntersteve]

well I scraped some more off the limbs as you suggested Justin....made a string for the bow,finished the arrow rest and leather grip.....I've shot the bow 20-30 times....shoots really well.....it ended up 50# @ 27".....which is a great weight for me....after shooting the bow I noticed 2 different spots...one on each limb that appear to be small hairline cracks....since I'm pretty new to this can someone fill me in on what's going on with this bow and tell me what(if anything) can be done....with a bamboo backing is it going to break?....can it be repaired?.....I'm going to post some pics....

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[huntersteve]

more pics.....

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[Justin Snyder]

Looks like crysals, tiny fractures from the wood being compressed to much. I have never had to fix them so I will let someone else tell you how to deal. It is probably in one of the areas that were bending to much right. Can you show us where it is on the limb. Also a picture of the thickness of the backing compared to the thickness of the belly wood would be nice.  Justin

[Badger]

  Steve, those are called chrysals, those of us who work with bamboo get to see more than our share of them, when using a soft wood like red oak againsta bamboo back about all you can do is try to get as much limb workking as you can as evenly as possible. That bow is now scrap, sad to say but you got some good tillering practice in and did a pretty good job tillering it out. Don't feel bad, I had those little frets appear on several bows in december, all from the same jatoba board, nothing I could do would seem to avoid them. Steve

[huntersteve]

thanks for the info guys.....albeit bad news....what will happen if I keep shooting this bow....will the oak belly break alone or will the bamboo snaap with it?....here are some close-up's of the limbs at the points where the crystals are....I used an arrow as a pointer.....

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[DanaM]

You could try to saw the boo off the back so that isn't wasted.
Sorry about yer luck but it was a learning experience, now git back on that horse 

[huntersteve]

Don't worry...already have....started on a piece of hickory yesterday.....Thanks again...Steve

[Justin Snyder]

It does look like the bamboo was fairly thick in comparison to the belly wood. You want the boo to be no more than 1/3 the thickness of the limb. You boo wont be hurt. You can sand the wood off like Dana said and use it on another bow.  It is best to use boo on real dense woods.   Justin

[richpierce]

I don't think the bow will explode; it will just get more and more string follow and less and less draw and cast.  Couldn't it be shot at a lower draw length and work?

[George Tsoukalas]

Been on vacation so I didn't get on this early enough apparently. Looked to me that you needed to get more near handle wood bending. You still should to relieve the chrysalled area. What I usually do is mark on the side where I want the bending to start and then work there until the wood is bending. Your bow chrysalled because it was bendiing too much in that area. Get more near handle wood bending. IMHO. Jawge

[John R]

Hey there, technically you are able to do a pretty good job both in tillering and and laminating. Please don't take this wrong, I love working red oak and have sold a bucket load of my Paddle Bows in red oak to maybe close to 200 people over the years, but you may want to consider another base wood for a boo bow. I'm sure this will be a great bow and it could be even better in some ways if you matched the boo with a wood stronger in compression. I make it a point to stay clear of message boards because of all the bow politics and stuff, so I hope this doesn't come off as negative.. You made a really nice bow. John

[tom sawyer]

Chrysals happen at a weak spot that is bending harder than the area just inside/outside of it.  The node on the boo made that area especially thick, pluss it looks like the boo was thicker there anyway.  I actually grind my boo backing down a little extra at the nodes, not a bunch but you are already fighting the extra thickness at the nodes and you want to avoid exagerating that.