Ash warr bow....

[akila]

Hy guys....i started my first warr bow....the wood is ash,  is 190 cm long, 36mm wide in the handle, at mid limb its 35mm, at the tips its 18mm for the moment...it has temporary noks, i just made  some little groves  in the wood,the bow its 27 mm thick in the handle....so i just wanted to ask you for some help tillering this bow....in this picture,  the bow is with a long string, and im pulling aboute 9", and its 88lbs at 9".....so what do you think aboute the tiller plz?? i think tha the left limb need some more scraping arrounde the midle area, but i wanted to ask for your opinion...how should i proceed from now on with this bow??? im trying to reach 32" full draw and 120#....thks in advance..

[alanesq]

I cant see a picture of your bow ?

My experience of ash has been that 120lbs is on the very limit of what it can handle and your bow is not as long as mine so you will have to be very careful tillering it
although, having said that I am using kiln dried wood so your ash may be better than what I have used ?

have you chased a ring on the bow ?

[akila]

Ups.....o my god... sorry..i forgot to put the picture......

Here is the picture......o man im sorry ...i feel  so stupid...

[alanesq]

its looks to me good in the centre area
1/3 in from each tip could do with bending more

BTW - Have you seen my "booklet" on my experiences with making ash bows?
can be downloaded from www.alanesq.com  (Back street bowyer)

[Yeomanbowman]

As Alan says the centre is working but the rest is working not much at all.  Don't pull it any further until you sort this out or else you will end up with loads of set/frets where it's at it's worse, the middle of the bow.  Try and get a slightly flattened arc shape and what is the density of the ash?

[Tom_Brone]

you will need to get the right limb working more in the middle (because you will get chrysals at the fades, or a hinge), and the whole bow bending more towards the tips.

Tom

[akila]

HI...thks alot for your help....this is exaclty what i wass thincking...trying to  get the right limb bending a little more in the middle to avoid a hinge at the fades, and to get to hall limb  benidng a little more thru the tips...the bow wass bending just 9 "...i did not pull the bow further then this...ant the wood is pretty dense....0,9 ..tomorow i will put new pictures...

[akila]

Hy guys...here is the bow after a little work that i done today.....i dont know what happents, but it seam that its realy tricky to tiller this bow.... ....usuly i tiller a bow in a fiew hours, but with this one its a little dificult to tiller.....i have notice a fiew points where i need to do a little more scraping but i realy need your opinion to....thks a lot.

[alanesq]

I have drawn an arc on to your picture as I find doing this can help a lot on deciding how the tiller is going and what needs adjusting etc.

I think you just need to get it bending where the green blobs are and you will then be getting pretty close :-)



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[akila]

HI and thks for your help....right now the bow wass pulled just aboute 14"....im thinking that iff i solve this problems, maybe i can strung the bow and tiller from here on...for the moment the bow is still a warr bow ...the scale shows me 99lbs at 13" with long string....so im still on the heavy business...i hope i can tiller this bow right....

[alanesq]

So far, so good :-)

Make sure you dont end up rushing though, this is something I always really struggle to avoid (especially when I seem to be spending ages trying to get it right)
also, keep exercising the bow a lot as you go, otherwise I find the ash will suddenly lose a lot of weight when you least expect it

Ash is really prone to compression fractures on the belly (especially with high poundage) so keep a close eye out for these
if they are shallow then its not a total disaster (my 120lb bow has loads of them but still going strong) but when I was trying for 130lb I was getting them half way through the thickness of the bow :-(

[akila]

hello.....today i wass working again on my warr bow, and i strung the bow today, and i manage to pull him to the full draw.....this means 34", the bow show 110# at 34"...the bow wass strung only 5"...it wass realy dificult to strung the bow....i had someone to help me to strung  the bow ...so i think that if i had strung the bow let say 7"...maybe the bow it will be at full draw a little stronger thenn 110lbs...but aniway its ok....i just have to put some horn to the noks, and to make him  a string and its done...left limb looks pretty good to me, but the right limb its not realy perfect....the  wood has 2 small knots  to the tips area, and this is why i could not make that area bending a little more, i wass afraid to take more wood from the area , becose of those 2 small knots....aniway this wass a learning process so i think that next one it will be better.... here is a picture at full draw..the only problem is that the bow has taken a lot of set....after i unstrung the bow the set is aboute 4", and after some time the set its aboute 2"....i think that the wood wass still a little green...what do you think i should do aboute that.??...i wass thinking maybe trying to recurve the tips...i have seen some warr bows that have the tips recurve, in some old paintings from medieval periode....

[alanesq]

Excellent job there :-)

BTW - 2" of set is fine on this type of bow, mine has 3"
I find my ash bows very difficult to string, I have never really figured out why this is ? ?

[akila]

You realy think so... im looking  for an hour at that  right limb and im so angry becose i dont like it so  much....im trying to decide what to do....but in the same time i know that there is not much to do....iff i start heat treat the belly and trying to reflex  the hall bow, i know that the set eventualy will come back....all i can do is trying to  flip the tips a little....aniway i think i will put the bow in the hot box for a fiew days to remove the moisture....and i  will install horn noks....this will be  funn....i never done this and i hope i will make it right... ...thks a lot for your help....

[alanesq]

You can spend hours worrying if the tiller is perfect but I always figure that once you have the bow to full draw then the bow is finished
any adjusting after that may improve it a bit you you risk destroying the bow which would be a disaster after you have had it at full draw

I would stop worrying about it and get using it :-)