Wrong End of the Stick!

The bow is looking really good and is back to 45# at 24"
I'm just scraping and sanding now as the last 2" of draw can leap up on you unawares. I want to shoot it a bit too and let it settle. Then I'll get the horn nocks on.
The guy I'm making it for got in touch, he'd misinterpreted my comment about adding some sapwood onto the back. I meant a mere sliver at the nock to give a little extra wood to work with and to allow a nock be to filed in as a temporary nock without cutting into the back of the actual bow. See the first pic where you can see how the nock is mostly cut into the overlay rather than the parent wood. The whole overlay will get rasped away when the tip is prepared for the horn nock.
You can see the very tip of the overlay has got knocked off, if this had happened to the parent wood it would have been a bit irritating.

The extra sapwood also gives me the option to angle the tip towards the back of the bow if required (see lower tip pic). This is handy if say the tip of the stave has a bit of a deflex dip in the last inch or so. You can see on this one the heart/sap boundary dips a bit at the tip, this doesn't matter as it will all be lost under the horn otherwise it would look slightly naff.
It's good to get the cosmetic details right having spent the time getting a bow tillered right. The sanding, scraping and finishing could be seen as tedious, but tackled a little and often it has it's own reward when the bow is finished. It's also an integral part of inspecting for any imperfections or problem areas.

I couldn't resist giving it a wipe of Danish oil to bring out the colour. The pic bottom right shows the filled knot  (near the top) which has almost disappeared, it also has a dark shadow of a pin knot beneath it. Just below centre is a pin knot, unfilled but stabilised with superglue showing as little more than a black streak. Right at the bottom right is a filled knot which is just above the arrow pass and makes a nice feature. The pic upper right shows the swell of the grip area (upside down!) where you can see the knot near the arrow pass again.

Tillering Progress

Now it's flexing pretty hard, I'm going over the sapwood again getting it to somewhere approaching the final finish. I'm narrowing the limbs slightly and moving the nocks a bit more in line. The string line is pretty good and it's drawing true but there is a good dog leg on one limb. I don't want to stress the wood by heat straightening it anymore, but I might do my trick of gluing on some wood to the tips on the back to allow a bit more sideways nock adjustment.
Oddly I'm finding the string-line is pretty much dead centre, but I don't want it wandering over towards a right hand bias. the more the bow comes back and the thinner/narrower the limbs become the easier it is for them to wander sideways. Conversely as the brace height increases and the limbs get used to coming back they will tend to settle. It's all a bit slow and steady, minor adjustments, catch it before it goes wrong. Plenty of looking and no drastic changes.
When the horn nocks are finally added  the actual wood inside the horn becomes circular in cross section and a  pretty small diameter. Adding some extra sapwood onto the back (or leaving extra there when it's worked down) makes it easier to shape a round cross section blending onto a 'D' section limb.
This trick also moves the nock a whisker toward the back of the bow giving a nicer look to the curve of the nock. If you examine some nocks closely where they meet the back of the bow you can see the problem of going from round to D.
It's pulling 45# at 21" and the tiller is looking better. The reflex tip should pull out to almost straight at full draw, but trying to judge the tiller on a waggly stave is tricky. I've got high hopes that it will be a lovely bow with some great character, but not to the detriment of the performance.
This is Friday morning and I'm saving this as a 'draft' as I'll be doing a little and often off and on all day... it's just the way I work.

Friday 4PM:- I've done some more, removing all the rasp marks with a scraper and getting it looking more like a bow. It's back to full brace now.
I don't know if you can see the difference, it's back to 45# at almost 22"
I think the reflex is flexing a bit but the outer 1/3 of each limb needs to work more. I'm being fairly cautious in that area as I don't want it to bend sideways at the waggle.
To me it has a slightly more rounded look.

I've shot a couple of arrows through it left handed, the first was a bit of a struggle and a salutary reminder of how beginners can struggle. I felt the bicep of my left arm tighten up as I tried to draw it and I loosed off a rather wobbly shot, which stuck in the target at a bit of an angle. I tried again from a bit further (to give the arrow more time to straighten up) getting myself much more comfortable and canting the bow at a bit of an angle. This time I followed the advice I give at have-a-go days, and drew by thrusting my left elbow back as if elbowing an imaginary Ninja (who is creeping up behind to attack me)  in the face . Much better and a good clean loose which smacked home straight and true.

The penultimate pic shows the change from yesterday... not a great deal!
The right limb is bending in a slightly fuller curve and this allows the left limb to pull down a little more (see saw fashion).
The last pic shows how it is flexing from brace to it's fuller draw, it shows the right limb is moving less than the left. It's still a bit stiff. (I've only just worked out how to do this in MS Paint, it's quite useful.

It's a good illustration of how long it takes working on a bow. People often ask how long to make a bow, it's not the actual physical time working on it, rather the time waiting for glue to dry, heat treating to stabilise, thinking, drawing it on the tiller, testing and patiently scraping and sanding. I s'pose I've probably only clocked up a couple of hours maximum today, but I haven't actually spent time doing ow't else (excluding tea, toast, cat nap... terms and conditions apply!)

Waggly Yew on the Tiller

I've finished cleaning up the sapwood, rounded the belly a good bit and got it to a low brace.
It's pulling back to 45# at about 20".
You can see the right (upper) limb is a bit stiff on the outer 2/3.
The recurve in the lower limb is still showing and the lateral waggle is looking ok with the string line fairly steady and just offset a whisker to favour the left hander.
It won't take much work to get it right back now, but the trick is to do right work! Concentrating on that right limb should get it back towards the 26" I'm aiming for at 45#.

I've been playing with my little lathe too, I made a new pulley for the motor from a chunk of plastic, turning it on the lathe. I bought a top slide online for a Unimat 3 lathe which I've modified to fit. It required turning a steel bolt head from hex to round. the lathe managed to do that ok. With the smaller pulley it's going a bit slower and sounds better, it should also have more torque. I'll be able to turn arrow heads with it now. Dunno when I'll actually get round to it, but I've had tons of fun playing with it already.

Yew Longbow Almost Ready For Tillering, Video

The video shows the bow I'm working on, just prior to really starting to work it on the tiller.
The video isn't great resolution as it's too big unless it's compressed a bit. But it should give an idea.

The top pic gives shows the knot that was tapped out, you can see that once the hole is cleaned back to sound wood it is substantially bigger, this shows how much crumbly black manky stuff is round even a small knot.
The second pic shows it on the tiller with no force applied, it's certainly got some character and this shape will need to be reflected at full draw. So the left limb should look stiff in the outher 1/3 when finished and the right (upper) limb should look a tad stiff in the middle. Although knowing me, it may still look like an arc of a circle.
Bear in mind some of the shape will pull out.

I've measured the limb thickness at 6" intervals, looking for about 2mm change in thickness every 6".
The limbs were fairly similar and I've rasped a bit off here and there to match it all up to the thinnest point.
There's usually one point a bit on the thin side and that becomes the reference point for adjusting everything else. Doing it like that you gradually reduce the thickness overall whilst retaining a nice even taper. Once it's pulling back enough to see by eye, then it's more down to look and feel.
I put it back on the tiller with a taut string and it's pulling a bit further now, getting close to brace height.

I've drawn it a bit by hand (left handed, as it's for a left hander) and it seems to come back nicely without trying to twist in the hand. I'll be keeping an eye on the string alignment and any potential twist in the limbs especially where the bends are. Once it's pulling back a fair bit the bow may fine it's own plane to flex on, and what seemed to be dubious string alignment may settle down.
At this stage I have a fair bit of width to play with. The width doesn't really start getting tweaked until it's coming back to about 20" on a taut string or maybe 18" from braced.
That'll do me for now.

Tiny Lathe

I stripped cleaned and adjusted the lathe. It was sloppy as hell when I got it, but feels much more solid now.
It seems to be missing it's top slide, but can move left/right on the leadscrew so it's not a big issue, although the topslide can be used for cutting tapers which would be handy
 I tested it on a scrap of arrow shaft first and then some brass. It works fine, but chatters a bit, mind I know zip about machining so the feed/speed and tool angle is prob all wrong.
It should do nicely for making little horn or brass arrow heads for some bamboo shafts I've got.
That's a £2 coin in the pic, so it gives an idea of how small it is.
You can see theres a backplate and tool rest too, which will be handy for turning wood, although it won't turn much bigger than an ashtray or a chess piece.

Meanwhile the Yew bow is having it's sapwood chased to something near a single ring, and the copper archer is running around the garage wreaking havoc.

Cold and Cold

 Snow still on the ground so it's a bit cold in the garage. I've got the sniffles too so I'm not going to be trying to do much.
I do have another project on the go which is a copper version of the sculpture I did here.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012_07_01_archive.html
I'm planning to submit the wooden one to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, but there is a local exhibition on before that which gives me the excuse to try a copper version.
I have some large diameter thick wall copper pipe from our old heating system, (modern pipe is much lighter gauge). I sawed down one edge of a piece and then opened it up using wedges levers and a wooden mallet.
My bandsaw has a blade for non ferrous metals which cuts through the thin copper like a knife through butter.
I'm not sure if I'll try to braze the pieces or maybe use soft solder or copper rivets. Getting a nice patina on the finished article will be interesting too.
I drew it out on paper first and stuck it to the copper sheet with double sided tape. His head looks odd as it will be folded back on itself to create a more solid head of similar shape to the wooden version. I've sawn out 2 more arms, so I'm ready to start shaping it once I'm brave enough to go out in the cold.

I'm also toying with the idea of getting a small model maker's lathe. Nothing expensive or fancy, just something to tinker with and turn arrow heads and such like. There are some very small old ones about which are a reasonable price, but will probably need some work.
I've never really done any metal turning so it will be interesting. My dad has a big old Myford 7 but that's a bit scarey and a long way away, he also has some tiny watchmakers lathes which belonged to his dad, but they are too small (hmmm this is sounding a bit 'Goldilocks' ).
I narrowly missed out on one last week, but it prob' did me a favour as it was fairly large and didn't have a chuck or motor, so I'd have had a lot of work to do. I'll post some pics if I manage to get one.

Woo hoo! I won the E-Bay auction for a little 'Super Adept' lathe. It's only about 15" long which means I'll have room for it in the garage. I've got to arrange collection some time, it was only £51 which is pretty good.
Even if it needs some work to clean it up it will be worth that in entertainment value.

Hickory / Lemonwood Finished & Steaming Done

The Hickory backed Lemonwood is finished and hopefully the lad who owns it will soon settle in to it, shame the weather is so poor as he won't get much of a chance until it thaws.

I've finished steaming the Yew stave for now.
I should be able to reduce it a tad more, file in some temporary nocks and try to flex it on the tiller.
It's a bit cold in the garage to do much, but I'll manage the odd short burst.
You can see the lateral bend has mostly been taken out but I've left the rflexed tip. The sapwood is nicely reduced now too.