Newbie question/issue

[robbcolejr]

Howdy! I took a bowyer class in July, and am now making my second hickory bow. It's my first one on my own. One limb is pretty straight, and the other limb has a slight backset and a fairly pronounced propeller turn. I started tillering it today, and started taking wood off the curved limb since it seemed significantly more rigid. It's now visibly quite thinner than the other limb, and yet it still appears stiffer on the tillering stick. I know that with the propeller turn and the backset, my eyes might be tricking me, but I'm scared to shave off any wood from the other limb, even though it's way thicker, and will need to come down quite a bit, as the bow has a long way to go. I'm just hesitant to proceed until they look even, but the curved limb is starting to look pretty damned thin, but still doesn't appear to bend as much as the other one. I guess my question is, is it normal to have one limb significantly thicker, as long as they bend evenly?

[Adam]

Any pictures you can post would be very helpful.  Congratulations on starting your second bow.  There will be more...

[lostarrow]

I'm guessing that it only appears stiffer because of the backset. Your bow will not get  that nicely tillered shape you are probably looking for. If you put it on the tillering stick and lay it on a piece of cardboard ,and trace the bend of the good limb,then flip it over and compare the bend of the other limb , what do you get? These are tricky buggers for your second bow ,BTW.

[DarkSoul]

Short answer: no, it is not normal to have one limb significantly thicker than the other. Both should be the same thickness (give or take within 1/16").
Any chance of a picture of the tiller?

[Dictionary]

Short answer: no, it is not normal to have one limb significantly thicker than the other. Both should be the same thickness (give or take within 1/16").
Any chance of a picture of the tiller?

If one limb is reflexed, err....setback, it would have to be thinner to bend as equally as the other, correct?

It isnt possible to have one with reflex and another without and have them bend evenly with the same amount of wood on each limb.

[PEARL DRUMS]

[[/quote]

It isnt possible to have one with reflex and another without and have them bend evenly with the same amount of wood on each limb.
[/quote]

What if one limb is shorter?

[DarkSoul]

Incorrect.
Both limbs of a bow need to bend equal amounts; not form an equal curve. If one limb is reflexed and the other limb deflexed, this must still show in the finished bow at full draw. One limb will than still appear stiff while the other appears weak, but both limbs still bend equal amounts, reflected by equal amounts of tip deflection.

Unless one limb is significantly shorter (as Pearl says). In that case, the shorter limb will be slightly thinner.

[lostarrow]

What we are getting at is that the limbs,if bending evenly with each other , wont look like they are if one starts with a deflex. The bow you are working on will never have a tiller that"LOOKS" even .Some bows have been posted on here that have one deflexed limb . if you can find the pics you'll see what we are talking about.If I find them ,I'll give you a link.

[lostarrow]

I like Pearl's answer . Make a yumi!

[lostarrow]

Ghost Dog's GUAVA snake bow ( full draw pics)..Not for BOM !!!!!!!

Here is a good example.

[robbcolejr]

Hey, thank you all for the input. I'll try to post pictures, but I have a crappy camera on my phone, and every attempt has failed to represent what is going on with this bow, IMO. Made some progress today. One thing we didn't cover in the class I took was heat-treating. Well, this morning I learned that my dad has a heat-gun in his shop, and although I had no idea what I was doing, I decided to risk it, and try to take the propeller curve, and much of the backset out of the limb, and it worked out pretty well. There appeared to be a tiny bit of string-follow afterward, but the tiller was much better-looking, and I corrected another problem, where the string wasn't totally in the center of the handle at brace-height, due to the prop-curve, poor knocks, and overall sloppy measuring. I also made some tweaks to my knocks, which weren't measured and made properly on the wonky limb, and that helped, too. Problem is, at that point I trusted my eyes instead of my brain, and started taking more wood out of the thinner limb, trying to get that near-perfect tiller, even though I know I have two very different limbs here. Now I have a fairly pretty bow so far, with a passable tiller, but one limb is still thicker, and I know that isn't right. At this point I should explain: the bow is for my girlfriend, for her birthday, and she can only draw at 30-35 lbs comfortably, so this bow isn't going to be taking down any bears or anything; mostly just shot for fun. If it's not perfect it's ok, but I'd still like to get it right, of course. I'm going for about a 24" draw-length, and it's only at 20" now, and pulling at about 52 pounds, so I'm relieved that I still have some way to go, and haven't totally ruined this thing, yet. I have to be very careful tomorrow, and count every scrape of the cabinet-scraper as I go. I don't think I'm in too much danger of breaking it (it's a pretty stout piece of hickory), but I know it's still a possibility. I've spent all my money on tools, and if this thing breaks, I've got nothing for her birthday. Whatever happens, I learned a hell of a lot today, and getting that prop-curve out made my week. I wish I had 500 staves sitting around: all I want to do is make bows. I dream about them, and everytime my mind wanders, I'm thinking about this bow. It's my entire life right now, and work and all else are distractions. Her birthday is the 29th. I will make this thing work.

[randman]

One rule people will tell ya about on here is never pull past the weight you want it to be in the end. If that's 35 lbs, don't pull it past 35lbs or you'll induce excess set that will affect the performance when you then tiller it to 35lbs. Pull it to 35lbs and THEN remove wood from each limb to get it to the draw length you want (if it doesn't already pull to the drawlength you want at that weight).

[robbcolejr]

Oh man, It's a bit late for that. I've been doing it backwards then; trying to get it to draw-length, and then tiller down to weight. Damn. I guess I was a bit confused in that class. Thanks for the vital advice. Live and learn.