The nocks are both glued on and I'm shaping them to blend in with the bow, it's important that the bowstring can slip along the limb and onto the nock smoothly.I've worked the nock down substantially, it's much easier to work with it glued on as there is something to get hold of, a couple of layers of masking tape help to protect the wood while I file the nock. A bit of diablo* sanding helps round every off nicely.
It's not actually polished up yet, but you can see how I've tried to make it in proportion to the bow tip.
The heart wood sap wood shows up nicely too. When it's all finished I may add some secret experimental decorative touches, but that's a way off yet, let's get the nocks finished, a proper string and a couple of hundred arrows shot through it first.
Ive made a dip in the nock which can be used to accept a second long string to be used as a stringer if necessary (using a stringer is probably the easiest/safest way to string a bow, although the stringer is something else to loose of course).
*Diablo sanding or polishing is where you have a long strip of sandpaper or emery cloth and you hold one end in each hand allowing you to work it back and forth like working a diablo... the big yoyo thingy which you work with a string atached to two sticks, great fun.
The full draw pic shows a lovely arc of a circle, it's slightly shifted to the left as I had it slightly off centre on the tiller, the final grip and arrow pass position is selected after some shooting to find what feels and performs best, some people talk of finding the 'sweet spot' but to be honest I tend to choose the arrow pass position for the most even tiller and then adjust the arrow nocking point to suit. I've finished polishing the top nock 280 then 400 grade wet & dry paper, I've given it a quick wipe of Danish oil and it looks pretty sweet, too dark for a decent photo today. I've got a bit of a sore throat and I'm a bit tired, if it wasn't for that, I'd make a string tonight and shoot it at the club tomorrow.
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