One problem with heavy bows is that I can't shoot 'em in. I normally like to shoot at least 50 and in some cases 100 arrows through a bow before I declare it finished.
Yesterday I'd heaved the Elm warbow back and forth and pulled it briefly to 32" but not held it there and not allowed any margin of overdraw. So to compensate and help the bow settle, I left it strung overnight. (Do I hear cries of sacrilege?)Anyhow, this morning I put it belly down on the floor and measured the gap between floor and grip.
1 3/4", that's some set and some string follow. The set will be the gap after it's had a few hours to recover.
Just measured it again some 4 hours later and it's 1 1/8" so that's the real set... but then, only compared with what it was before it was even made into a bow...
So I laid it on the floor against the chalk line I'd traced out before heat treating and it sits exactly on that chalk line.
So how much set has it taken? Overall from where I started, very little. From after heat treatment, maybe and inch and a bit.
Further update:- measured it a day later and it's dropped to just over 3/4" !
Hopefully I'll get some video of it being shot at the weekend... weather and test pilot permitting.
Meanwhile it's been raining all day, so I've swept up and cleaned the garage having virtually finished the bow. I wanted something to tinker around with in the garage, so I made a little wood drive centre for my lathe and turned down a bit of box wood that I had lying around.
Did a bit to the Yew primitive too moving from axe to spokeshave. It's just a bit of fun, no measuring, just doing it all by feel and eye. I'll probably recurve the tips a bit and get it bending in the grip. It'll be interesting to make it the same draw weight and length as Twister, my regular field shooting bow. I can compare the performance then.
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