all sapwood black chery bow

[mitchman]

here it is. thought i would try it. dont know if its usualy something that is a good idea    but i did it and left the handle with some heart wood on it which will be pretty when it is sanded and finished   its 40 pounds at 38 inches.   i can never make heavy bows ahhhhhhhh. but all well when i make a heavy bow it will be an experienced one haha   i heat tempered the belly which raised it five pounds. but when i tried dry heating to recurve it, it didnt work so well, how comes?    anyways where i did dry heat it, it got soft and take a ton of set at that point any tips to correct that.

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[mitchman]

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh           set!!!!!!

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[JustAim]

Steam the limbs to reflex the tips.

[mitchman]

do you think it would be ok even though the wood is weakened in that spot.

[JustAim]

l would atleast try it. Just steam the heck out of it, the most it could do is break. Theres plenty more trees out there to make into a bow. But if it does break, learn from it and move on.

[mullet]

 It's probally too late to steam and correct it. When you heated the sapwood you more than likely got it too hot and damaged the wood. On your next one ,if it is white wood or sapwood try steaming or boiling the wood. I think then you will get the results you are looking for.

[OldBow]

Got your bow bookmarked for February Self Bow of the Month...1st entry!

[DanaM]

Looks to me that the reason it took so much set is that all the bending is taking place in one area,
you need to get the whole limb bending from the fades to just shy of the tips, BC is not an easy wood to
make a bow from, suggest you try something different hard maple, hickory or elm.

[George Tsoukalas]

It shoots and that is a tremendous accomplishment. Like Dana said a pyramid shaped bow should have a tiller that is rounded in shape. The near handle wood, being the widest has to to really do its share of the bending and then some. Elliptical tillers, which yours has, are best for the design where the bow is left full width to just past mid limb. In your bow the bending  is taking place where the wood is the narrowest which results in more set. Enjoy your bow and forget about the set. My first has 5 inches of set. Jawge

[Hillbilly]

Still looks pretty good Mitch, I bet it shoots smooth. Like George said, on a pyramid the inner limbs should bend a lot and the outer limbs should look a bit stiff. Cherry apparently isn't an easy bow wood to work with. I've got tons of it around here but never tried it. I wonder if narrow/thick would be better than wide/thin for cherry? Or cherry/sinew might be a good combo.

[mitchman]

ya  i think i had the tiller correct until i heated it   literaly that part of the tips are much thicker than the mid limbs     theheated part is just plain flimsey       all well.    i made another bow out of this wood  a week or two ago and its actualy a fairly forgiving wood. i missed weight so i piked the hell out of it and recurved it     it gained 8 pounds. but by then i was lokking at it as more ofa learning experience so i tortured it some more  and it finaly broke    i guess sapwood is just not very tolerent of mistakes...   all well its not my favorite self bow but i was fun.haha.

[Hillbilly]

Mitch, that's what it's all about-make shavings and see what works well and what doesn't.

[denny]

HI there, I am a new member, so I'll say my name it is jerbowden. I would like to say good job, any time you can bend a stick and it shoots and doesn't break .ada boy..I have been making selfbows for years and I can say black cherry is not one of my favorites. However if one wants to build such a bow, from my own experience, you should back any bow made from this wood 50#s or more . I have broke my share of these bows as a whole forest of them grow outside my door any i can cut them anytime. however, you might try ironwood or elm or hickory. none the less good job . By the way once I have made weight on a bow and it has some string follow a trick I have found to work is reflex the limb, by tying a jug of water in the midlle of handle and  support the limbs across two chairs near some heat source such as a pellet stove  or register. a day or two will do the trick. Now I am assuming your tiller is as good as it gets. also , I have taken  some material from the fade out area of the handle to correct this problem. this will stiffen the weak limb. shortening the handle just a little and see if this  helps. good luck.