Busy Busy Bowyer!

I've had a great couple of days, refurbishing the bandsaw, glazing the summer house and adding a drip edge to its roof.
Done some more on the bow too.
The bandsaw was in a bit of a state, the thrust bearing that is out of sight and out of mind underneath the table had got graunched to buggery (technical terms there), I managed to make do and mend for a day or so by temporarily by turning it round. The blade guide bearings are the same size, so i decided to replace them too. While I was at it I turned the upper thrust bearing (big circular job in the top right pic) on my little lathe to give it a clean smooth face. It runs much smoother now.


I was hard at it most of yesterday getting the summer house glazing done with 4mm Acrylic sheet which I ordered online. I think I could possibly have got away with 3mm, but the 4 gives a more solid feel, so if anyone is wondering what to go for, I'd say 4mm.

Working on the Yew Primitive bow is fun,
I can feel it flexing a bit now if I lean on it, so I may put a long string on and pull it on the tiller to get a feel for where I am.
I've a sort of idea brewing to maybe splice some little levers onto the tips a bit like what I did on Monkey bow , this would still be in keeping with a Primitive bow but could make it a little different and maybe give it some extra cast. It's all just an idea at the moment, but bearing that in mind I'll avoid doing too much to the tips, that way I'll have plenty of wood for splicing if I decide to.

 I'm letting the wood dictate where it goes, but it dawned on me... I say that, but what the heck do I mean? Well in one pic showing the edge of the bow there are some small knots running across the belly and out to the edge. As I work down those knots they disappear, but the wood will tear out or the drawknife may dig in. The choice it to allow the drawknife to rip out along the grain and go with the flow, or to use a rasp, also as more heartwood is removed on the belly, it can expose sapwood along the edge, I've decided to a) Let the drawknife run with the grain and b) narrow the limb where any sapwood shows on the belly. The effect of those two things is that the width of the limb will follow the whims of the wood, rather than being straight.
The other pics show a group of knots which come through the back, I'm leaving these fairly proud, and the grip area which is left thicker and shows the nice colour of the heartwood.