First vine maple stave! (and overall first stave)---[Hinge broke the bow]

[ionicmuffin]

This stave i just received last Thursday! This stave was gifted to me by Bryce, so a big Thank You to him! I have run into a small problem that i would like the communities opinion on. There are several bumps and lumps on the back of this stave, and i am not sure how to remove wood from the belly to maintain a balance between the thickness of the limb and between each section of the limb i remove wood from. My idea is to use my finger to trace along the back of the bow while on the sides i use a pencil to translate the bumps on the back to the sides so i can remove the proper amount of wood.

[ionicmuffin]

More pics

[Weylin]

I think you've got the right idea. You want to follow the back as best you can. I use the method that you described with the finger and the pencil. it works pretty well for me. then once you get the bow roughed out you can also check the thickness taper with some outside calipers if you feel like your fingers are deceiving you.

[sharpend60]

Yep that how you do it.
Vine maple is tricky like that.

It can make for a tricky tiller.
In fact I forget the tiller tree and get it right from a thickness stand piont.
Spend most of your time BEFORE you string it, then exercise, exercise, exercise.

Also VM often has a propeller, it can give ya false readings on a tiller tree. Make sure you view the bow from many angles.
If your thickness is good trust that, not your eyeballs.

I recently did a VM just like described, never touch a tiller tree/stick.
Started 4" reflex, 100+ shots later, 3" reflex and the crazyiest tiller you've laid your eyes on...

[ionicmuffin]

This stave has 4" of reflex atm. it is only 60" long though and i have a 30" draw, so i will be flipping the tips to avoid any stack. even if i cannot get it to 30" draw i will still be happy with 28". I just went ahead and thinned the limbs and will repeat now that the whole stave is at least 1" or less thick. i will be repeating until it is about the thickness that it needs to be.

[Weylin]

Is this bow going to bend through the handle? If not I think you are asking alot of this stave to bend 30". Flipping the tips will effectively shorten your working limb, adding more stress and inducing even more set. I'm not sure you can afford it with such a short stave and such a long draw length. I'm not an expert on what shorter bows can take but those are my suspicions.
Are you sure your drawlength is 30"? I don't mean to doubt you, you could be a very tall person but most people tend to overestimate their drawlength and are often quite surprised when they measure it accurately. Put a clothespin towards the end of a long arrow and draw the bow to your normal comfortable anchor point so that the pin slides along the arrow at the back of the bow, measuring your draw. take the arrow off and measure the distance between the inside of the nock and the pin. Do it several times so you can throw out the measurements where you were overstraining. A friend of mine just did this recently and found his drawlength was a full 2" shorter than he had always thought.

[ionicmuffin]

i plan to have it bend through the handle a bit, i was planning to have all but 2 inches at the tips doing work, also, i will check my draw, at first i had thought it was 32" but i was wrong. Time to remeasure, we will see what it is and i will re-post.

[Weylin]

I know a guy that has a 32" drawlength but he's one inch shy of 7' tall.  And I think that's his compound bow drawlength which tends to be a little longer than a longbow drawlength.

[ionicmuffin]

so i have concluded after performing the described method above, that i have a draw of 29 1/4 most constantly(like 5/8).

[Bryce]

Hold off on flipping the tips.
The finger and the pencil thing is how I do it. Sometimes with a T square.

Off to a good start.

-Bryce

[ionicmuffin]

2 more pics of areas i had been working on to follow the lumps

[Carson (CMB)]

In my limited experience I have found that it is better to leave a little extra meat around those lumpy knots. I think it is a good idea to establish your thickness taper with the pencil/finger method, but don't get carried away trying to dish out the belly side of a knot.  I think the treatment of lumps in the second picture you just posted looks great, but the first one I would be a little worried I was dishing in a bit deep behind that knot. that said, pictures can be decieving, so trust your gut over anything I have to say. 

[aaron]

good advice so far. i use calipers to judge the thickness taper in lumpy VM. If you leave too much extra meat on the belly side , you are effectively shortening your working limb by making that area stiff. It's hard to jusge how much the lumps are bending- so as someone else stated, make sure to get the thickness tapering throughout the limb. Here's another trick: draw a straight line on the side, right at a bump. bend the bow a little on a tillering tree. now hold the straight edge up to this line and see how much it bent. Do this every 6 inches along the entire bow for an almost foolproof tiller! good luck!!

[aaron]

oops in those two photos, i am showing 2 different sections of the bow, but you get the idea. the blue tape arrow on the straight edge helps measure the bend.

[sharpend60]

I like that tiller trick.

I never was on for a 'tiller gizmo', most of the bows Ive made are just to wild for it to work.

Your method is a great alternative.