Flexing "Second Chance"

The reworked broken tipped Warbow is now 50# at 24".
Here's a still grabbed from the video and a short clip of it actually flexing.
The tillering needs some work still but it's looking pretty good. The right limb had been much stiffer than the left, but now it's reasonably balanced and I can work on getting both limbs curving nicely.
The left limb is a bit stiff mid to outer limb. As you watch it flex in the video, it looks like the right is doing all the flexing and the left is just pivoting down. All a bit subtle (especially at this short draw length*), dunno if you can see what I mean. It's a bit touchy feely at this stage. You really need to get your eye in to how it's moving, which is why I use the video, I can sit back in comfort and study it with a nice cup tea. I think newbies tend to rush at it and don't take time step back and look and think and ponder. The more I look at it the more it stands out like a sore thumb! Still I have 4" more of draw in which to sort it out, hopefully I'll have it coming back further and better by tomorrow night.

The way the thickness of the sapwood changes along the edge of the bow makes it look odd in places. Notably about 1/3 of the way along the right limb where there is a whitish mark on the wall, the limb looks very thin there... don't worry folks, it's just one of those optical delusions! (that's a deliberate Malapropisms in the name of humour)

* That's the irony of tillering. You need to see the problems early, but it's harder to see 'em early because there is less movement to observe!

Cream Crackered

I've been sorting out the central heating, flushing out the indirect hot water heating coil... I was up until midnight... got it done tho'. It left me tired, grumpy and cold (the plumbing is all out in the garage, and I got a bit wet).
This morning I thought I'd take it easy ( having dried my tools and tidied the garage first) and go up the club for their AGB Open Day, show off a few bows, watch the medievals shooting heavy arrows and shoot a few 3Ds to demonstrate field archery to the visitors.
A lovely sunny day, I saw the Hazel Warbow in full flow, it's shot in now at a full 32" draw now and hasn't taken any set.
I demo'd the whistling arrows and shot twister on about 10 3D rubber critter targets, I only needed 2 arrows on one of 'em... it was nice to feel I'd got my mojo back.
I didn't even feel the weight of the bow or consciously think about aiming. I think having an audience helped, I was chatting about how target archers take an eternity and they know the distance of the target...
I said, "This is about feel for the distance and letting your eye and brain do it without trying to think about it".
I added that, having said that, I'd probably miss!
With that, I turned, drew and loosed in one smooth motion... Thud, in the target, just outside the kill at about 30 yards.
Got back home pleasantly tired.
I'll have a nice cat nap and then watch the cup final... might get to work on the bows tomorrow.

The guy collected the Italian Yew 50# on Friday. I got an E-mail saying it shoots really sweet, better than his laminated bow.

More Italian Yew "Second Chance"

Strange things coincidences... they always happen together!
I've been given a damaged Warbow (nasty split/crack) near one end to re-work as a ladies bow. 50# at 28" again (it probably won't be drawn 28", but the extra draw is there for moments of exhuberance!).
I had been expecting to leave it a month or so, but as I had my eye in for that weight, I've jumped onto it... also the weather and other stuff has kept me off the gardening.
I sawed off  8 1/2" to get rid of the crack/split and set to re-working it.

What a contrast! This Yew is similar to look at to the previous stave and oddly, it also has two almost identical big knots which will be on the upper limb!
The big difference is I can't use edged tools on the heartwood! Now I'm not daft, but even using my spokeshave with the blade freshly sharpened, set to cut fine and held obliquely to give a slicing cut...
It just tears the wood, reversing the stave doesn't help!
So it's rasp, rasp and rasp some more. The sapwood is ok with the spokeshave, I've had to reduce that a bit where I'd otherwise be all sapwood and no heart wood.
There is no trace of the Warbow's surface left visible now and it's flexing at a low brace to about 50# @17" This one is the middle of the thee in the pics.
The picture shows the slight extra width on the upper limb around the knots, the rest of that limb needs the width reducing to match the lower... oh joy... more rasping!
This bow will henceforth be referred to as "second Chance".

I've also been working another 50-70# at 29" It's spliced billets from the Yew I got from Newmarket a couple of years ago. By contrast this cuts smooth as silk with the spokeshave, is finer grained and only tears at the knots. My conclusion? Judge the wood on the merits of the stave.
I'm not sure this bow will work out as the billets have a fair old reflex to them (vaguely matched). The problem is one of motivation, the guy I'm making it for is in Australia half the time and hasn't had a chance to visit. I find, once I've met someone, it's hard to procrastinate.

BTW. The lower bow in the pic is the totally finished Italian Yew 50# @28" which has now had 100 arrows through it and a new string made for it.

Finishing

I've done the arrow plate, the guy wanted a Warbow look, and that would have been without an arrow plate... BUT if heavy arrows with binding on the fletchings are used it can severely rasp away at the wood, so I said I'd do an arrow plate from the same pale horn as the nocks.
As I was sawing the horn for the nocks I ended up with a slice which had the whitish centre of the the horn showing through it... ha! I'll use that for the arrow plate, subtle, but with a petit je ne sais quoi.
Note the "crack" showing in the knot just right of the arrow plate. I put crack in inverted commas as it's more like a drying check where branch that forms the knot has seasoned. It may well move slightly over time and form a very slight pinch. E.G a tiny ridge where compression has closed up the gap and raised a tiny ridge which can be felt with a fingernail. Pinches are quite common around belly knots, especially if any manky material hasn't been removed around them. You can see, this knot looks very sound, it is also at the thickest part of the bow. The crack is effectively radiating out from the central pith (which shows as a black spot) of the branch that forms the knot.

People often ask how I get such a good finish on my bows. The answer is simple...
Looking closely and repeatedly and patience. If you can see tool marks, take them out! It can be a mistake to labour away with sandpaper rubbing and rubbing along the grain. One of the big myths about abrasive paper is "use it along the grain" ... errrr. No not if you are tying to take out a tiny score mark that runs along the grain!
If you compare the pictures of the knot on the side of the bow from the previous post and this one.
In the previous post there are obvious rasp marks still visible. 80 grit paper used diablo fashion across the edge of the bow rounds it off and takes out the marks, I think I used a scraper too, very delicately.
Yes you finish along the grain with (in this case 120grit) and that takes out the marks left by the 80 grit. *
Only 120! I hear you cry... yes, sometimes going too fine doesn't help. The Danish Oil I use recommends finishing with 120 as it hold the oil and allows some penetration.
Anyhow, each to his own and we all have our pet techniques for finishing.
The other big question is how do you know when to stop? You stop when you realise the tool mark you are trying to remove is actually a feature in the grain!

*Yes I know there are still some fine marks visible! This is just the clean up after the first coat of Danish Oil and more fiddling and fettling... mind it is a "warbow" not an exhibition piece.


That's not to say all bows need to be finished to a high degree, but it's about being true to your own aims. If you want a rough and ready warbow look with scraper flutes showing down the bow, that's fine and you should display them with pride.

Full Draw at Last

I got it to 50# at 27" and realised that once it had been strung for half an hour it would probably be 50# at full 28" draw. It's had a wipe of Danish Oil and now needs an arrow pass and some fine tool marks taking out, but it's near as dammit finished now.
I'll get some arrows through it to let it settle, I normally like to shoot at least 100 through a bow before I let it go.
Here are a load of pics showing some of the features, knots on the side and back, the blue stain by the bottom nock and the top nock which is so translucent you can see the grain of the wood through it.

Nearly There

It's down to some fine rasping and scraping now to perfect the tiller.
The horn nocks are on but not polished and I've borrowed a string from one of my other bows. It feels quite lively and is now pulling about 50# at 26" from a full brace height. (That interpolates to about 55# at 28").
It's taken a hint of set in the upper limb near the run of large knots, so I won't take any more wood off in that area. I'll mostly be easing off the tips and getting them working more, although they have already been narrowed and thinned a good bit when I fitted the nocks.
I've also been going over the back carefully looking for any signs of cracks opening up round the knots, which have all had a soak of low viscosity superglue to help fill any porous areas where the bark on the pin knots comes through. It doesn't really add strength, but it will stop any damp getting in and help seal it for the final finish. If there is any sign of problems at the knots on the back I can fill them and overlay a sapwood patch to ensure the strength of the back like this:-
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/repair.html

I've now shot 4 arrows through it and left it braced all morning.
Some careful study, cleaning up here and there and relieving any thick spots and it will be there.
I'll give it plenty of exercise leave it braced off and on all day and shoot some more arrows. The last couple of inches doesn't usually take much work, mind it's sometimes easy to be too cautious and end up getting nowhere.
It's looking good, but V slightly stiff at the grip and tips. Maybe I'm being fussy, but if I need to remove a little weight, it's best to take it off the right place!
With a rasp rasp here...
.. and a scrape scrape there
here a rasp, there a rasp...
everywhere a scrape scrape.

With apologies to Old Macdonald!

Yew Now at 50 at 22"

This shows how a bow is worked back by removing wood and pulling it to the same draw weight, each time it comes back a bit further...
If you are not heartily sick of putting it up on the tiller, exercising it but pulling it up to draw weight a few times and studying it,. Then you aren't doing it often enough!
Dunno if you can see but I've drawn a straight pencil line on each limb to help me see the overall curve of the limbs without the knots and dips distracting my eye.
It looks pretty good if you hold a CD up to the pic. If you compare with the previous pic you'll see the differences are pretty subtle, the right limb has a slightly fuller curve and the tips are more level Mind I can't guarantee the bow started in the same position for both shots, and the brace height has been increased a little.
I'm still a bit nervy as the bow is very knotty and it's getting to the point where it can easilly go bang. Just for info, they usually go bang just when you breathe a sigh of relief and thing Ah, nearly there! At about 26" draw!

My visitors came over and we had a fun morning, I was showing how to reduce sapwood and layout billets. We had a go with a load of my bows including the Chinese Repeater. I shot one of his bows, a Boo backed Lemonwood bow, it was a nice bow and had been drawn to a full 32" which was pretty impressive for a relatively short bow. It was a sensible cross section a shallow D, I suggested the 'boo could have been a tad thinner and the nocks a bit slimmer. Loosing weight from the tips would give a more Warbow shape and would boost the speed a whisker. The 'boo backing was particularly handsome as the surface of it was slightly concave in places giving a really interesting look. He brought some knives he'd made too, one looked really handy as working knife.
He was more into laminates and backed bows and his dad had a decent woodworking workshop which must be really handy.
It was great to talk to people who understood wood and were into bows.
I gave him 3 pairs of billets, one really skinny and scruffy, one pair matched but rather short and skinny, the final pair had much more wood, but each had a slight waggle which could maybe be ignored and laid out straight at a pinch or laid out following the waggle giving a symmetrical bow with some character, the tips and centre lining up nicely. There should be a bow in there and it will certainly give some practise splicing billets and working with Yew.
A couple of bottles of wine were a very welcomed swap!

Sunday lunch and I've just tried my Wilko's "Hoppy Copper Bitter" to go with it.
It's only taken about 3 weeks to be ready.
It's excellent, much lighter than the stout, nicely bitter, just right for Summer drinking... result!