OK...... so lets tiller the BACK of the bow/ It's DONE & ALIVE

[half eye]

      Just finished up a couple of bows for a trade and was looking for some more "trouble" when I ran across these bows. They are both Native American, and one is from the Smithsonian and the other I believe is from the Peabody....those are the first two pics. It is real obvious that the BACK of the bows are "scooped-out" and seem to big for the usual cable backed bows. So as I started laying this bow out ....it occurred to me that if the Native Americans really liked using their "crooked-knives" it would be a lot easier to "scoop" the channel with that, than to flatten the entire belly side of the bow.
     So thats what I'm doing I'm "carving" in the tiller on the bow's back. Will rephotograph after it's tillered...right now it's bending about 6-8 inches and I'm still reducing weight and tweeking bend.
     Just thought you'd like to see what the "crazy" is up to now.
half eye

[attachment deleted by admin]

[DanaM]

I love it your single handely debunking lots facts Crazy as a fox Rich

I'm assuming this bow is also edge grained. What type of wood?

[half eye]

Ya Dana, it's edge grain....thats what I got sooooo. It is straight grained hard maple. The limbs are 2" at mid limb and the tips are 3/4 (so it looks like that museum bow) It will be 57" NTN And I'm shooting for it to bend into the handle but a little more rigid than a stiff handle would be....I'm rounding out the small grip all around to get that effect. Right now I have it bending about 14 to 15 inches and thin limb is REAL Stout so far I'm guessing 60 maybe 65 at that distance.
      Oh ya, it will never see a tiller tree either.....I'm going to stick (pun?) to a native type tillering stick to even out the bends and reduce till it suits me.....going to have a 27" draw to fit me. I think thats all the dimensions ya asked about.
half eye ............it aint me, think there's something in the water eh?

[DanaM]

youbetchaeh 

[elk country rp]

i love the way you treat "the rules"- makes me wonder if a mere mortal like me could get away with it.....

[George Tsoukalas]

Yup, I was being a rebel too when I used a t stick against my mentor's advice but my t stick decided to end my rebellious efforts when IT broke while the bow was at full draw. The bow was fine but conked me in the head. I now use a rope and pulley. Tillering from the back is an interesting experiment but not something I'd do even with 1/4 sawn. The fiber violations have to be very gradual I would think. jawge

[tonys]

Hi. Just wondering if the two ridges left actually create two stress ridges instead of one are down centre of spine and so spread the stresses more uniformly.

Great looking idea.
Tony

[Justin Snyder]

It is amazing what you can find in those native bows if you look a little isn't it.  They must have known a lot that we don't know and yet we call them primitive and ourselves smart. 

[half eye]

Hey fellas,
     Justin: It would be real interesting to be able to talk with those guys to know what the reasons were for some of the bow designs, all we have is some of the bows....not how come?
     Tonys: I really dont know for sure but I'm going to keep an eye on it as it gets the stuff shot out of it to see how it reacts (assuming it gets to be a bow) but it has allways facinated me to know "whats going on" dont know if I'll ever figure it out.
     George: Just copying a style, so I really dont know about how the grain is going to react. So far I kind of like it because as I gouge out wood from the channel and then smooth it....it seems that changes to the weight and tiller are smaller than what I figured they be.....aint done yet but thats my first impression.
     Elk Country rp: It's not about "rules"...I haven't been here very long and for years been makin bows out in the shed without really knowing what I was "supposed" to be doing or not doing. I'd just see some type of bow and try to duplicate it and maybe learn something along the way. Thats whats so good about all these guys on this site and the different ways they go about things....I can get a real sense for what other peoples points of view are, and their reasons for doing things.....before I was kind of living in a bubble and going along all fat, dumb, and happy.
      Thanks for the comments, it's appreciated!
half eye

[Stoker]

If it can be done I'll bet on you
Thanks Leroy

[Josh]

that's pretty cool, Halfeye... I hope it works out i would like to see it make it, If anyone can pull it off it'd be you...    -josh

[George Tsoukalas]

half eye, good for you and have fun. Jawge

[half eye]

     It looks like it just maight make it. Got it tillered in (mostly) but needs to get more bendy in the outer half of the limbs, maybe 1 or 2 inches.....right now you can feel it through the handle pretty good, and the full draw pic shows me it is too stiff in the outter half.
    That full draw is really that....the arrow is a 31" (overall) I use it to check some bows I make for other people. Here's some pics of it and to be honest the limbs are getting scary thin....couldn't help it so I put it on the tree to check it's weight and it's at 40# @ 23" so I figure it's right around 50 to 52 at my 27" draw.
     enjoy the photo's
half eye

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Josh]

...If it is starting to get too thin in the thickness, you can always tiller from the sides to make it a narrower bow i guess.   I really don't know how that would affect the scooped out back though...     -josh

[Marc St Louis]

I made a BL bow many years ago that had a natural concave area on the back in part of a lower limb.  The bow lasted for a little while but it did eventually fail right where it was concave.