Red Oak Board Bow Buildalong

[Coca Cola]

Bt I think you should make a sticky of all the little pictorials and buildalongs posted by smj, 2chucks2 and others. They are quite helpful.

Thanks for the help. I now know what you mean but I am reluctant to do it. Just a lack of experience. I feel like if I do it I will take it off when its not needed.
Hmm.. maybe I could get someone to take pics and I would flex it. Post pics on here, then you all tell me what to do.
I havent done anything since monday though. I decided I was going to go out and buy a piece of wood to cut for the riser block. I have no tools to make a perfectly straight cut. The local hardware store will cut it to size if you buy from them so I am hoping to do that. Any suggestions on wood?

[Coca Cola]

Ok Just got my sis to take pics of me floor tillering. First pic is bad angle so its hard to tell. My expert interpretation of these pics are to get it bending closer to handle and tips. Am I right? Sorry about poor quality pics.

First, Lets call this bottom limb.


Link- i95.photobucket.com/albums/l127/jjrb715/Picture027.jpg

Top limb


Link- i95.photobucket.com/albums/l127/jjrb715/Picture026.jpg

[smj]

Two things that a lot of folks do wrong is to get the tips to soft, and other is to let the bow hinge right at the fades. The fades are where the grip comes down to the limb and then becomes the limb. If the tips are to soft, this is called a whip-tip. They tend to break. I tend to leave the last two inches of the tip alone, and not take off any more at this point. Leave them thick. OF COURSE to get a whip-tip you need about the last quarter of the limb to be overly limp, not just the last two inches. Still, I find it a help to leave the shape of the tips till last. Also, you may need to adjust the limb tip a bit to one side as you go forward. When you check the center line, it may be off a bit. Until you can brace the bow for an hour or two at about 6 inches, you are teaching the wood to compress and stretch. As the wood compresses - well - things can change a bit.

As for back at the fades - make sure they come off fat and taper down the limb for now. You can reduce them a little bit, but not much at this point. Look for a nice curve along the length of the limb. Keep in mind that you really don't want to stress the limbs to much at this point. Over compress the limb early on and you will at the least rob cast from what the bow could have done had you not, or create a hinge that will leave you with a really long kids bow, or tooth picks.

Looking at your picture, it looks like the limbs are moving for you, and this all you really want for floor tillering. Work the limbs 20 or 30 times each, but don't over push it. The next step would be to move to a tillering tree. Look up what these are... They are simple to make. A 36 inch 2x4 is about all you need. Start with a long string that leaves the bow without stress when you are not pulling on it! Then you will want a string that will allow you to brace the bow at about a 1 inch brace height. Once you brace the bow, most say to not pull more than half the draw weight you want to end up with up to about half the draw length you want to end up with. I say never draw the bow more than you need to in order to find faults that need attention. Take a look at page 3 of the "building a bow" thread for the way I do nocks and tillering tree. On the tillering tree, you can step back and look things over without the need of help from others. However, make sure it can't tip over... Also, don't leave the bow sitting in the tillering tree under stress any longer than you have to in order to mark up where changes are needed. As you thin the limb, you are moving the compression and expansion areas around. Hence, you don't want to over do them until you are much closer to the draw weight you want. As to draw weight, shoot for at least 5 pounds more than you want. You will loose some draw weight due to compression, some when you smooth the limbs out when tillering is done.

[smj]

By the way... For the first bow, if you have a 4 inch chunck of red oak from the end of the board you cut your bow out of - I'd just use that. Cheap, you don't have to travel, and it will look just fine. Figure out what to do, worry about style later. Another thought would be to do what is called a "C" type bow. This is one that allows the bow to flex through the grip section. In other words, no grip block added, and not much shape to the grip section, no deep cuts for arrow rests. You can add an arrow rest without cutting away wood - build it up where you want with leather works very well. Your design though!

Also - you are correct about taking small amount off and then checking what you've got. Go small, flex the limb a bunch, then see where you are at. A spoke shave is nice, a cabinet scraper is very cool indeed (although may need sharpening/preparing.). Sand paper can be used, but with no small amount of pain unless you have a belt sander. The issue with a belt sander is that you can take to much off to quick. A rasp tends to leave deep cuts that may make for to much draw weight reduction to take them out and smooth up the limb once you have it where you want it.

[Coca Cola]

I am building this bow for practice for future ones. Thats why I want to do a full size handle I want to get a feel for shaping wood. I am not really planning on using this one. I will shoot it but not too much I am already trying to figure out what my next one will be. ( this is addicting stuff). I dont think I am going to make the handle pretty though but full size. I am also planning on cutting just enough shelf for the arrow to rest on.

For my ong tillering string can I use nylon cord I use to tie lacrosse pockets. I dont know how to make my own strings. I am not planning on shooting anything with the bow until I get a proper string.

" Make sure the fades come off fat and taper down the limb"
I dont understand what you mean

I have already checked the centerline a few times. I was very suprised its still in the exact middle.

I am going to the Trad archery Expo tommorow and hope someone is selling the bowyers bible you speak of and a string for my bow hopefully. Any thing else I should get?

[michihunter]

What time ya gonna be there CC? If the weathers good, I may venture that way.

[Coca Cola]

michihunter said:

What time ya gonna be there CC? If the weathers good, I may venture that way.

I dont know yet.

[smj]

What I meant to say by that is just to make sure you don't take to much off the limb where it runs into the grip. Work the flex out towards the tips, and let it stiffen up again, just a little, as you approach the tips. A lot of first time bows end up with either a hinge just off the grip or a whip tip. Once you have it up on the tillering tree, you can note much better where the limb is bending/flexing and where the limb is stiff. A cabinet scraper is very good for the wood removal - you can't take a whole lot of wood off with each pass and it leaves the wood fairly smooth. If the wood is very stiff, then a rasp followed by the cabinet scraper to clean up works well - but go easy on the rasp! If you cut the diameter of the limb in half, you cut the draw weight in half. However, removing wood from the belly of the bow has more of an exponential effect on draw weight. You don't have to remove much belly wood to get a lot of change and once you start to hinge - you can not add that wood back. If you let the bow hinge right off the grip, the limb can be pretty much gone. Yes, you want the limb to flex all the way down to where the fades come out of the grip - but you do not want to try to make that perfect while floor tillering. It is to hard to see what you are doing!

I still think "Hunting the Osage Bow" would be very good for you. The tillering section is very well written and lays out in great detail how one might go about accomplishing good tiller on a bow. He takes you from start to finish on an osage bow from a tree. It is nice because it is one persons veiw of how to do it all the way through, with tips on what they have found to work. The Bowyers Bibles are packed with info - but jump subjects a bit and don't walk you through one bow from start to finish. You might find the info a bit of an over-load at first.

[Coca Cola]

Thanks for the help smj. Tell you guys how it goes

[Coca Cola]

I just got back from the Trad archery expo. It was alot of fun. Got to shoot some bows. About 50# is where I am at. Its alittle stiff but with a couple weeks of shooting I am sure I would feel fine. Maybe thats the weight I will make my next bow.

It was really cool. There were tons of bows there. You name it you could buy it.

smj I found the book hunting the osage bow and didnt buy it. I didnt bring enough money . I noticed it after I bought my stave that I will use in a couple months. I also bought a string and a tab.

Turns out my dad is friends with a good bowyer. He was their selling bows. My dad told him I was making one right now and he said if I ever needed to use his tools I could. He is a cabnet maker so I imagine he has everthing.