Thursday 21 May 2015

Nearly There

It's down to some fine rasping and scraping now to perfect the tiller.
The horn nocks are on but not polished and I've borrowed a string from one of my other bows. It feels quite lively and is now pulling about 50# at 26" from a full brace height. (That interpolates to about 55# at 28").
It's taken a hint of set in the upper limb near the run of large knots, so I won't take any more wood off in that area. I'll mostly be easing off the tips and getting them working more, although they have already been narrowed and thinned a good bit when I fitted the nocks.
I've also been going over the back carefully looking for any signs of cracks opening up round the knots, which have all had a soak of low viscosity superglue to help fill any porous areas where the bark on the pin knots comes through. It doesn't really add strength, but it will stop any damp getting in and help seal it for the final finish. If there is any sign of problems at the knots on the back I can fill them and overlay a sapwood patch to ensure the strength of the back like this:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/repair.html

I've now shot 4 arrows through it and left it braced all morning.
Some careful study, cleaning up here and there and relieving any thick spots and it will be there.
I'll give it plenty of exercise leave it braced off and on all day and shoot some more arrows. The last couple of inches doesn't usually take much work, mind it's sometimes easy to be too cautious and end up getting nowhere.
It's looking good, but V slightly stiff at the grip and tips. Maybe I'm being fussy, but if I need to remove a little weight, it's best to take it off the right place!
With a rasp rasp here...
.. and a scrape scrape there
here a rasp, there a rasp...
everywhere a scrape scrape.

With apologies to Old Macdonald!

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