Thursday 18 August 2016

Wonky Hazel Full Draw

I put the horn nocks on, slimming the tips and went over the belly with the scraper to take out the tool marks. Had it brought it back any further? Nope!
Hmmm, I'd got the tiller looking really good and was reluctant to do much more work, but I went over it again with my fingers and eyes looking for thick or stiff spots, I looked at the pictures and the tiller again. A little light rasping with a cabinet rasp here and there mostly on the wonky lower limb and it came back a bit more... but then the right limb needed easing off. Back on the tiller and now it's near as dammit, mind the tiller can maybe still have a tweak! (I think the lower limb is always going to look a bit odd due to the wonkiness)
I'll maybe ease it down a tad on more on the right limb to fine tune it and bring the weight down a whisker. The spec' was 40-45# and it's a bit over at the moment so I a tiny bit of room for fiddling and fettling.
I've tried the CD test against the pic and it looks pretty good, I think the extra white wood on the left limb draws the eye and makes the tiller look odd, there is also a hint of deflex on the left tip. (Feel free to comment)

Doubtless, I could have heaved it back to 28" a couple of days ago, but with a risk of chrysalling the belly, it still would have been a shoot-able bow and indeed there is nothing to say that after 100 arrows it won't suddenly chrysal. That reminds me of when I was at the Tennessee Classic, a guy (who shall remain nameless to spare is embarrassment) was showing me a gorgeous bow that he'd made and it was well shot in. He suddenly stopped dead... he'd seen some chrysals, that hadn't been there the day before. I really felt for him as it spoiled a bow of that quality... but if one of your first bows, don't worry, get a bit of shooting out of it. Better to make an under weight bow with some set or chrysals than not to have made a bow at all. And don't worry even the best have bows that go wrong. Another time a chap was showing me a bow he'd had made by a reputable bowyer... I spotted a chrysal, fortunately the bowyer replaced it with no fuss.

The nocks need polishing and I'll make a decent string. I'm booked into a field shoot in 10 days, I'll probably take it round and see how it performs, get some pics of it in action too.

Note:- anyone who is extremely sharp eyed may notice the rule beneath the tiller has been adjusted slightly, that's because the grip is quite deep and my draw length measurements were about 1/4 " out. Yes it's a bit obsessive, but it takes attention to detail to play this game.

No comments:

Post a Comment