Roughing out a stave

[Badger]

  Curious as to what method if any the different guys have here of roughing out a stave just prior to first brace. Especially working with character staves and whood-de-doos. Something I started doing a few years back that I think helps is running a growth ring on the belly as well as the back. Not as careful on the belly naturally but I find if I just chase one ring after another until I get a slight flex in the bow I have it pretty well oriented and in a good position to start the tillering process. Steve

[Josh]

pretty good idea Steve.  I use my drawknife held at 90 degrees and pay real close attention to my thickness as I go.  Usually I scrape the high spots and then bend against the floor often.. Sometimes I run it across my belt sander as I go too.  just depends really.     -josh 

[artcher1]

I use the "taper tillering" method on everything Steve. I apply my side/belly taper to the appropriate design and this eliminates the need for flooring tillering. The limb bending stage (floor tillering) is just to judge limb strength/bending suitable for even tiller at first brace height (on the tillering tree/board). Pre-tapering, at this point, has already produced the bend I'm after. Maintaining "equal limb mass" also helps to achieve even limb strain at first brace. After that, it's pretty much removing wood the length of the limb for weight reduction. ART

[George Tsoukalas]

Hatchet, draw knife, and  surform to floor tiller and long string tiller. Once I brace it is push knife used as a scraper. I am removing wood from the belly until the final stages of tiller when I may remove wood from the width to bring the tiller in. Jawge

[Kegan]

I draw lines out on the sides/back and just hack at it with hatchet, drawknife, and ferriers rasp . Understandably, it takes me a long time to get them looking nice after that

[John K]

I do the same as Kegan. I was working on an Elm chunk last night. Geez that stuff is tuff ! It's got to be the tuffest wood out there !

[aero86]

what ive done so far on my oak board bow, i used a jig saw to cut out the outline i drew on the back of the bow.  then drew my initial taper on the belly and used the jigsaw as far as i could.  saved lots of time that way.. not very primitive i know, but saves time!

[woodstick]

draw knife rasp. thats it. i made 1 bow with 1 growth ring on back and belly allmost perfect tiller from the get go.

[Parnell]

On thing I've learned with using a bandsaw is; if the stave has twist - obviously you cant just slice straight through or on side will be thinner than the other.  So I angle the stave and take thin strips off the sides, then watch the blade as it cuts through the remaining higher section of wood in the center.   

That and don't use the bandsaw if I've drank too much coffee.

[Josh]

That and don't use the bandsaw if I've drank too much coffee.

...or adult beverages...   

[mullet]

 I'm in the ax, drawknife and wood rasp school. Oh, and the 12" disk sander.

[El Destructo]

Draw Knife...then either my Surform...or the Trusty Ferriers Rasp....then a Scraper made by Shannon to smooth it all up.Sandpaper is for Girls.........

[bryan irwin]

blockplane spokeshave drawknife scraper i draw lines from center out to tips and take it down with my blockplane then taper it down then i start scraping.

[ricktrojanowski]

I'm in the process of roughing out 2 right now.  First I cut the profile with the bandsaw leaving it a bit wider than the lines.  Then cut it out for thinckness with the band saw.  All pretty much the same limb thickness but thicker in the handle.  After it's all bandsawed I rasp and scrape to the lines for the profile and mark out the limb thickness taper and rasp and scrape to those marks.  Then floor tiller.

[elk country rp]

axe, really sharp drawknife, farriers rasp, knife/scraper

i like to hack the basic shape- including a little width taper- with the axe (usually when i harvest the stave so it'll dry faster- there might be some tying down to reduce twist, too), then clean it up with a drawknife. i try to do alot of the thickness taper with the drawknife, too, but usually end up doing most of that with the farriers rasp- kinda depends on how many knots there are. the rasp does a great job when there aren't too many undulations. if there are, i spend alot more time scraping. i check the flow of the taper with my fingers every time i remove any wood. once it starts to feel like a bow, i start floor tillering. on sapling bows, i find that i don't need to worry about the width taper much at all. by the time the floor tiller is close the tips are usually fairly equal. my usual pattern goes like this:
hack, scrape, drawknife, scrape, rasp, scrape- i pretty much scrape after everything to clean it up for a more accurate feel. i don't usually sand it until i after i'm done with the long string.

i like this thread- very educational!
Rob