Two pics to add. One unbraced and one braced. You can see that it has taken some set, but that's ok. I built this bow because I really wanted to try out two things I'd never done before: 1) I wanted to put siyahs on a bow, and 2) I wanted to do a lamination. I chose hickory because it is a great backing wood and red oak because I had some in the workshop. I'll have to find some better belly wood for the next one.
Tillering this bow was much different than for my flatbow/longbows. The bow was very stiff at first (the added lamination made it very thick. I had the long tillering string on with a goal of reaching 10" of movement. I had to take a lot of wood off with the rasp, but got my 10" of movement @ 50# (with a goal of 55# for the finished bow).
After 10" I gave the bow a light sanding to get the rasp marks out of it and put a low brace on it. The bow immediately pulled 47# @ 27". The caught me very off guard. After so much work to get just 10" of movement with the long tiller string, the braced bow went almost to my draw length underweight. What could be the cause of this? Did the leverage of the siyahs affect the draw weight, making it draw easier as the string was pulled back? Or am I imagining things and should be more careful next time?
I have some room to play and hope to end up at 28" @ 45#. I should be able to work out the tillering flaws. I really like the bow and will repeat the design again. I'll have finished pics by the weekend (I hope). I haven't decided how I want to finish it.
