Friday 12 April 2013

Wobbly stave and Ugly Tiller... Damn!

I've stuck some slivers of Yew onto the back of the bow tips, filed in temporary nocks and got the bow up on the tiller.
It's rather ugly and still seems a bit lacking in draw weight.
The right limb looks to be bending horribly near the centre of the bow, but it's mostly because it doesn't have the reflex kink of the left limb, I could carry on and tiller it like this but it would look awful and I'd have to weaken the left limb a lot to match them up.
Instead I will try to put a matching reflex bend in the right limb, this will also hopefully bring the draw weight up.
I have some doubts if it will produce a fast 70-75# bow, but it's easy to get discouraged. Maybe this wood is just a bit soft.. who knows? Worst Case is I'll end up with a nice 50# bow which will doubtless find a home somewhere.

The real problem is it's so hard to see what's really happening as it's so asymmetrical.
With bot pictures on my desktop and flicking between them I can get some idea of what's moving, but if I can get it a bit more symmetrical it will be much easier.

Damn, just spent ages with it jigged up working down the limb with the hot air gun pulling it into a nice matching reflex.
I thought, I'll work my way back up the limb, and as I went to adjust the heat gun I noticed a crack right across the belly.
I had an uneasy feeling about this stave... such is life, that's my last Yew for this year.
I've got some interesting wood to play with (Osage, Laburnum...)
though, so you haven't heard the last of me!

Update:-
Musings on why itcracked.
The most likely answer is the reason that most bows break... Impatience.
I tried to put too much bend onto a thick section with dry heat. Maybe slathering it with sunflower oil would have helped the heat penetrate better. Maybe steam would have been better for that thick section.
Having done plenty on it already I was keen to press on, and that's always a mistake.
Maybe I was just fighting the wood too much.



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