Stave makin :) and a bit of tillering.

[dwardo]

Hi all,

I love to make bows but sometimes you need to spend a whole chunk of time on the less exciting stuff like splitting roughing out and caring for staves. The photo below is off oak, ash, yew and elm. Lots of lovely snakey staves to boot. All of which had to be split, split again, trimmed then debarked, then hopefuly reduce the moisture content slowly enough not to check the wood.

This one is the last of the cherry bows which i hope to keep for my self providing she makes it.

 

[Man of Tanith]

i like the look of the cherry bow
can i ask why she might not make it? bow making is something that interests me but i have absolutely no knowledge of

 

[dwardo]

i like the look of the cherry bow
can i ask why she might not make it? bow making is something that interests me but i have absolutely no knowledge of

She is only tillered to about 15 inch of draw or so far, you can only do your best with natural material and until its out to 28 inch draw a lot of times with little or no change to its unbraced profile its in the lap of the bow gods!

 

[Man of Tanith]

any way you can appease the bow gods?

 

[Dreadhead]

shes a beaut

 

[DaveBromley]

i hear ritual sacrifice is the way to go Sam, any volunteers?

Dave

 

[Bundleman]

Lovely profile on that bow.

 

[Biker]

i hear ritual sacrifice is the way to go Sam, any volunteers? Dave

If no one volunteers can I nominate Southey?

 

[dwardo]

If no one volunteers can I nominate Southey?

Its usualy my own blood via splinter or hammer! More than happy to accept someone elses for a change.

EDIT Just looked again at the picture and the gods must be favourable, check out the string!!!!

 

[ateallthepies]

I like the look of those bark side showing snakey staves, are they the elm?

Steve.

 

[dwardo]

I like the look of those bark side showing snakey staves, are they the elm?

Steve.

Them be oak, perfect straight grain and split perfectly. One of the few local woods i have yet to try but our cousins across the road rate it. Will trap the bows back as i beleive it had fantastic tension properties but weak compression so should suit a high crown and heat treating. The other snakes are yew and are lovely examples at about 40-50 rings per inch.

 

[Man of Tanith]

i hear ritual sacrifice is the way to go Sam, any volunteers?

Dave

i could come up with a few nominee's that would be honoured despite the protests they might make at the time

 

[Biker]

Its usualy my own blood via splinter or hammer! More than happy to accept someone elses for a change.

EDIT Just looked again at the picture and the gods must be favourable, check out the string!!!!

Whoa! Yeah, you're a lucky fella there! Looks like your previous blood sacrifices have appeased these fickle Gods. Bet you'll double check it's nocked properly in the future after that close call. Lovely bow by the way, a true work of art. Hope it ends up as a user.

 

[paleotool]

I stared at that photo for a long time, wondering if that were intentional!
Good looking bow.

 

[dwardo]

Quick update. My last cherry stave seems to be holding together.
At about 19/20 inch it was starting to take a little immediate string follow so decided to do an early heat treat. Clapmed the bow into about an inch of reflex and use a heatgun to heat treat the belly.

This gave me a nice flat unstrung profile. Left it for 2 days and started to scrape again back out to 20inch of draw and then exercise the bow.

Scraped some more to try and pull the tiller in. top limb is giving me trouble in a few spots but the bow is showing less than half inch of string follow so far.

Will probably go for heat again next then remove a lot more mass from the outer limbs and tidy them up.

Will post more ramblings if its something folk wish to see progress slowly ?

 

[paleotool]

These pics make me so happy! I love to see a beautiful tiller on a bow. Keep showing the progress. It's good to de-mystify the bow making process.

Paleotool
http://paleotool.wordpress.com

 

[dwardo]

These pics make me so happy! I love to see a beautiful tiller on a bow. Keep showing the progress. It's good to de-mystify the bow making process.

Paleotool
http://paleotool.wordpress.com

Thanks will do.
Just gotta find the floor under the woodchip first

 

[dwardo]

Little bit more splitting
Lots of lovely straight ash that should keep us in bows for a while. Also some hornbeam and you should feel the weight of the stuff its like lead.

Wedges and sledgy oot

Still a seriously anoying flat spot in the first third of the upper limb and it just refuses to fall in line. 25/26 inches at 50lbs so far with no string follow. Hope to keep this one if it makes it. Just have to take it easy on that flat spot and the last 2 inches of draw. Very short bow for 28 inch draw with a stiff handle. Its about 59 ntn.

 

[dwardo]

As a side note, i am often throwing away small bits of yew that would make nice scales or something similar, if anyone wants any for the postage costs or trade would be happy to see it used and not burnt. I cant keep it all or i would not be able to move, same goes for cherry, ash, hornbean, elm.

 

[dwardo]

Taking a little more set than i would like. Its about 50lbs at 25 inches with about an inch of follow and the same of set.
Clamped into 2 inch of reflex and heat treated for about 25 minutes per limb, realy eats into the electricity bill does that!

I have gone for a more circular tiller and let it bend more into the fades and the outer third to help keep set under controll.

Will see how it fares after it has soaked up some moisture again but if all goes will it should be pretty quick. Before the heat i scraped the top fade, top 1/3 and the bottom limb to even up the other limbs corrections.