My first self-bow.

[JW_Halverson]

He Munkinstein?  Is your first name Chip, y any chance?   

For a guy that had absolutely no prior bow shooting experience or building history, you knocked this one out of the park.  The tips given on your tiller are fairly minor adjustments and cannot be construed as negative comments.  I know the people making the comments and they are not the type to be negative.  They are the people that will always pitch in to help you improve!  From the sounds of your responses, you certainly did not take their words out of context, either.  Something tells me you are going to be sticking around here for some time to come, you fit right in!

Now watch as your next 8 bows all blow up on you while tillering!  It's been known to happen.  Just remember this first bow and that it is definitely possible to turn out living, breathing shooters! 

Nice to meetcha, great way to introduce yourself!  Congrats on a good bow!

[twisted hickory]

Wow! That is a nice bow! Good tiller from what I see but i haven't built too many. Get a dozen arrows made and enjoy it You have a talent for working with wood.
Greg

[munkinstein]

He Munkinstein?  Is your first name Chip, y any chance?   

For a guy that had absolutely no prior bow shooting experience or building history, you knocked this one out of the park.  The tips given on your tiller are fairly minor adjustments and cannot be construed as negative comments.  I know the people making the comments and they are not the type to be negative.  They are the people that will always pitch in to help you improve!  From the sounds of your responses, you certainly did not take their words out of context, either.  Something tells me you are going to be sticking around here for some time to come, you fit right in!

Now watch as your next 8 bows all blow up on you while tillering!  It's been known to happen.  Just remember this first bow and that it is definitely possible to turn out living, breathing shooters! 

Nice to meetcha, great way to introduce yourself!  Congrats on a good bow!

Thanks for your kind words!  I have been lurking in these here parts for a while now and figured I'd get a lot of good constructive criticism, it's only way to learn.  I build this bow with the expectation that it would explode in my face but doing everything I could to prevent that from occurring, I'm fully prepared for that to occur.  I'll build a few more board bows to get a hang of this before moving on to building from a stave.  I've already stalked a few great potential hickory trees, and have permission to harvest. Again, thanks for the encouragement.  Take care.

[munkinstein]

The mid to outer limbs need to bend a little more.
If you want a rule you can use in the future then just look where the set is along the limb. There should be non near the handle , a little mid limb and the rest out to the tips.
Set is your teacher.
If a bow is bending correctly then the un-strung profile will tell you all you need to know about the tiller - I don't even need to string bows now!

Thanks for your advice. I'll definite pay attention to this for my next bow.  Ideally, how much set should I expect, if a bow is well made?  Does it depend on wood type, or does it come down to the bowyer, or a combination of both?"

[Scottski]

Nice first bow. I still don't have a good shooter. Broke 5 and last one came out at only 20#. So I'm still working on it.

[Weylin]

Thanks for your advice. I'll definite pay attention to this for my next bow.  Ideally, how much set should I expect, if a bow is well made?  Does it depend on wood type, or does it come down to the bowyer, or a combination of both?"

There's no clear and easy answer to that question but I'd say anything from 0-2" is considered acceptable. More than two inches tends to start having a pretty noticeable effect on performance with most bows. Some people hate it and strive to have none, others accept it as a matter of course and still others like having a little bit because they believe that it makes a bow into a "sweet" shooter. There are a lot of factors that can cause it, green wood, poor tillering, underbuilding, etc. but the root cause is from the cells in the belly being crushed and deformed, unable to spring back to their full shape. If you have dry wood, a good design and tiller it properly then set shouldn't be much of an issue, you may get some but it shouldn't cripple your bow.