Pyramid vs Flatbow

[jaxenro]

My understanding is on a flat bow the limbs remain parallel before tapering to the tips and on a pyramid the taper begins near the handle.

All things being equal which one is easier to tiller, and why? Or are they about the same?

[SLIMBOB]

The pyramid fans will tout the fact that thickness taper remains constant from handle to tip on a pyramid profile, where on a parallel profile, the thickness tapers the length of the limb.  Therefore less guess work on a pyramid.  On tree stave bows specifically, I'm not sure it works like the theory suggests.  You still have to scrape the flat spots and get the tiller correct either way. Roughing one out may be easier on a pyramid, but finishing them requires the same amount of skill and effort, so far as I am concerned.

[DC]

+1 You still have to get it to bend evenly.

[jaxenro]

Kind of what I suspected - six of one a half dozen of the other 

[Eric Garza]

The pyramid fans will tout the fact that thickness taper remains constant from handle to tip on a pyramid profile...

This hasn't been my experience, and I've made several pyramid bows. There's always a little thickness taper, though perhaps not as much as with more willowleaf-shaped limb designs.

[FilipT]

Attempted two times to build pyramid bow, both failed because of my poor choice of wood (good type of bow wood, but rotten which I didn't realize at beginning). In both cases while I did constant thickness throughout the limbs, on tiller it needed much scraping and when they broke, measuring made obvious that both bows had thickness taper. So in practice its different than theory of constant limb thickness.

I think constant thickness would probably be easily applied to the board pyramid bow.

[bubby]

With a pyramid you start with a even thickness taper and as you tiller you end up with a slight taper

[loon]

might be in part because it doesn't end with 0 width at the tips?

are pyramid bows faster or less handshocky?

[Jim Davis]

Loon, you are exactly right. It can be laid out to aim for the point, then go parallel the rest of the way. Then, the tips will be stiff for the last 6 inches or so and the rest should bend pretty evenly.

But I usually do it as Bubby describes.

Jim

[George Tsoukalas]

When did we stop considering pyramid bows to be flatbows too?

Limbs with parallel limbs are harder to tiller maybe and the tiller should be elliptical.

Pyramid bows should be more rounded and almost circular in tiller shape. That is the near handle wood, which is wider should  be doing its share of the bending. The tendency is to let the tips bend too much resulting in more set.

Yes, I've build some pyramids and probably tillered them not so well. I should have known better.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Jawge

[Dictionary]

yea im with George. I always thought of a Pyramid bow as a type of Flatbow.

[High-Desert]

i think the difficulty in tiller these two styles is mostly subjective. I find it easier to tiller pyramid limbs because i can see the circular tiller better than elliptical tiller. I have trouble seeing how elliptical a tiller needs to be. Some might find it easier to tiller elliptical.

Eric

[bubby]

I think we are talking pyramid vs alb

[bradsmith2010]

probably depends on which one you make the most, that will be the easy one, they both shoot well,,

[willie]

what is the reasoning behind making  the straight limbed bows more eliptical?