OK, tillered into the darkness, and managed to get nocks filed into both bows and gave them their first pull on the stick. You can see the stick is simply attached to my bench...i need a workshop!!!! Gotta get happening with that "creative visualization"!! I'm in my shop, building bows, very happy, in my shop, building bows, very happy....
here is a shot of a thorn just south of one of the nocks
and here, this puppy is rift sawn...
while its partner (with the 2" fades") is "pondsawn"
here is the rift sawn bow at 11 inches (fair effort to get it there, upwards of 70# "by eye")
and here is the pond sawn bow, also at 11 inches, a little easier to draw into place
Can you see that both of them seem stiff on the left side? Well, to double check, I turned the second one around, just making sure nothing funny was going on. And it was stiff on the right after I flipped it. So, tomorrow, I will chase tiller and try to get these sucker up towards 20 inches of draw....I've got other things to do, or I would run it all the way through.
One of these days I have to buy a spring scale. So far I've done all my tillering by eye and by feel. I have turned out one hickory bow 65# at 28 inches, and an ash pyramid bow 45# at 28, but from what i can see, using a spring scale takes the guesswork out. Pull it to weight, scrape it, pull it to weight, scrape it...next thing you know...you're a pro!!