Ash bow

[adestu]

Evening all
First go at an ash flatbow
Its no where near perfect few twists here and there and a knot in the back of the handle.
Its still a bit too powerful at the moment.considering its come from a felled ash tree and shaped with the pictured axes and knife.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Can't give ant advice, but looks great.

 

[adestu]

Cheers i done a course a few years ago but that was a laminate longbow.
Doing another with wayne at forest knights with the missus as he has a full member discount deal

 

[mrcharly]

I can't advise on this at all but it looks a tidy even job to me. Very even bend.

 

[crosslandkelly]

I was at the moot, when Wayne did his Ash flat bow course. Didn't do it myself, but I did his Bhutanese bow course the year before. Top man is Wayne.

 

[bowji john]

No expert but

right limb looks stiffer than left - don't keep tillering it till you have sorted that out - uneven tiller breaks the bow

So sort out right hand limb first ....

Remove wood from the tips inward rather than other way round. As wood is removed the bow starts to work closer to the handle. If you take too much off at the handle first then as you remove wood from the tips you might find that you have weakened to bow too much – too late by then!

So start at tips, working inwards to get rid of the flat spots that can be seen 2/3rds of the way out from handle both sides

Take some weight off the tips - they look a bit thick

Forgive me if I'm either teaching granny ..... or 'talking out of my nether regions'

 

[adestu]

No john thats just what im after.outside in.i purposely packed it in this afternoon as didnt want make a mistake

 

[Alreetmiowdmuka]

Looking good that.bet yer can't wait use it


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[dwardo]

Looks ace. Right limb as said looks to be stiff and maybe twisting a little in the mid, first and third. Twist suggests one side of he same limb being thicker than the other.
Set tells you everything about the bow. If it is taking set in one part of the limb, if only a few mm then its working too hard. Inners look good but outers need work.
If the outers are quite wide then narrow them rather than taking wood off the belly. You would be surprised how thin width wise the outers can be.

One last one When you have a good tiller out to about 18 inch and all is bending evenly, strap it to a board or bench with 2 inch of reflex and toast the belly. Hapy to provide more info on that if you decide to try. It can turn a soggy bow into a sharp cast and remove some of the tillering mistakes.

 

[adestu]

Again amazing criticism and advice.so thinning the width abit as well will help.i hope it turns out ok but i look at it as practicing the techniques and what to look for in future projects

 

[adestu]

The width is about 2 inches

 

[dwardo]

Sorry missed your post.

2 Inches is a good width for the first two thirds of the limb and for your first few bows. Keeping the limbs wide helps reduce set and stress especially on woods that are on average a low .SG. The outer third can be reduced a lot more due to less stress on the outer limbs on most bow designs.

One of the best tools you can have in your kit a decent accurate set of weighing scales. Digital luggage scales aren't bad to start.
Whenever you pull the bow on your tiller tree make a careful note of the weight at a given draw length. If the weight doesn't drop after some exercising you know your tiller is OK. If it starts to drop even a pound or two double check your tiller and the profile of the un-strung bow. Where the bow has changed profile is where the bow is taking set. If thats evenly across both limbs then the weight is too heavy for the design/wood. If it is concentrated in one area then there is a problem in that area. Remove wood from everywhere except there.

 

[forginhill]

Nice looking bow!

 

[adestu]

Thanks for the info dwardo.lots to take in.

 

[adestu]

Thanks forginhill.

 

[adestu]

Just an update
This happened yesterday

 

[Paulm]

Oh no, gutted for you Ade

Cheers, Paul

 

[adestu]

Its ok.i have another on the go.i need more raw material

 

[markman8]

... have you followed the one summer ring rule for the front of the bow as you scrape it with the draw knife? (I think back of the bow is the surface fasing you as you shoot it and front of bow is the surface facing the target correct me if I am wrong)

 

[Chris the Fish]

That sucks, happened to me on my first go at bow making too.

Good luck with no.2 and keep us posted


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