Friday 15 November 2013

Warbow at 32" Draw

JT, the guy for whom I'm making the bow, came over for a quick try out this morning. The bow was at about 145# at 32" and was just too much. This was despite warming up on the 100# Elm bow.
Originally we'd planned for 120# but decide 130# would allow some settling of the bow.
Back to plan B, I said I'd take it down to 130# which I've now done. Well it's still a whisker over, but that will disappear with the final scraping, sanding and polishing.
The video shows it at a good 32" draw and still over 130#.
I studied the video until I decided where the last few pounds were going to come off. I saw a stiffish spot in the innermost 1/4 of the left (lower) limb. Of course there is you say!... you can see a big bulge there... What you don't see is the deep dip in the back/other side of the bow.
The outer 1/4 of the right limb is a tad stiff too, but the knot there is a bit inhibiting... I took a little more off either side of the knot.
Anyhow I rasped and scraped some off the belly in that region, taking care to avoid removing wood adjacent to the dip. The tiller looks really good now and it's lost those last few pounds.
For such a long bow, you can see it's working hard.
I will have to wait for JT to get in training before I can see it actually shooting an arrow, as I just can't make any sort of impression trying to draw it myself!

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