yew ELB and more

[AH]

Some of you who frequent the war bow forum might remember back earlier this year I posted this thread where I was working on a yew war bow attempt, and sort of screwed it up with whip-tillering...
http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,38759.0.html
well, that bow sat in the corner for a while as I got pretty discouraged with it. But I was feeling really bad about screwing up such a nice piece of yew, so recently I picked it up again and decided that while it wasn't gonna make a war bow weight like I had originally planned, I wanted to at least make a decent bow out of it.
Here it is, it's 75.5" nock to nock, and 75lbs or so @ 30". It has Jatoba Tip Overlays. It had this pretty(?)  knot that was getting me at tillering, but I like how it turned out.
Looking back I guess the full draw looks sort of funky, I wish I could of gotten a better pic but that was the end of my brother's patience with the camera.

I also have been working on another yew stave, a nicer one that I got from Carson (CMB) which I am trying to turn into a 100lbs + war bow (i know, I never learn, do I?) I've been working on it really slowly because I don't want the same thing to happen to it as the last yew. It was also my first attempt at horn nocks, the horn which I also got from Carson... Thanks man
Last two pics are the stave from Carson. 19" is as far as I've dared to pull it so far.
I know that the brace height on the big Warbow is really low. That's as far as I've been able to brace it with stretchy dacron.

[AH]

oops forgot the horn nocks 

and that second photo...well I couldn't resist. That's what I do with scraps of yew leftover from roughing out... and that knife I just finished up too, 5.5" blade with jatoba handle

[Del the cat]

Nice work from a V challenging stave.
Del
BTW. Horn nocks are a right pain when you first do 'em, but it gets very much quicker and easier after the first few.

[AH]

Nice work from a V challenging stave.
Del
BTW. Horn nocks are a right pain when you first do 'em, but it gets very much quicker and easier after the first few.

Oddly enough, I actually quite enjoyed making the horn nocks, except for one thing....Wow...this horn sure smells......unpleasant, let's put it that way.
Looking back, I kind of think I should of made Sidenocks, since while it's not a Mary Rose Copy I am using the dimensions as a reference...but oh well. these were my first horn nocks and I didn't really know what to expect so I went with the regular horn nock design.

[Pappy]

Good looking bow.Nice work. Knocks look great.
   Pappy

[WillS]

Nice work.  Extra points for the Bernard Cornwell book peeking out of one photo.

[Del the cat]

Nice work from a V challenging stave.
Del
BTW. Horn nocks are a right pain when you first do 'em, but it gets very much quicker and easier after the first few.

Oddly enough, I actually quite enjoyed making the horn nocks, except for one thing....Wow...this horn sure smells......unpleasant, let's put it that way.
Looking back, I kind of think I should of made Sidenocks, since while it's not a Mary Rose Copy I am using the dimensions as a reference...but oh well. these were my first horn nocks and I didn't really know what to expect so I went with the regular horn nock design.

I sorta like the smell in a masochistic way...
Mind I eat sandwiches filled with hide glue... but I am a cat
Del

[AH]

Nice work.  Extra points for the Bernard Cornwell book peeking out of one photo.

yup, I have become a big fan of his historical novels

[AH]

by the way, any critique on the tiller of the big bow so far? I'm really paranoid about buggaring this bow up, especially a bow that came from a tree that was probably 50 times my age
there is a knot on the left limb, at that slight swell.

[Del the cat]

Difficult to comment on the tiller from those pics.
One pic (2nd down) is at a funny angle (and the top tip is cropped off) which makes it look like the nocking point is ay above center and the upper limb is a tad stiff in the inner 1/3.
Over all it looks like you should be drawing it another 4" 
the shot on the tiller looks like it's nearer brace than full draw.
Or to put it another way, it's looking pretty safe.. like you say, don't want to risk overstressing a bow with knotty limbs.
Del

[Joec123able]

Need to get the center of the bow working more. on a fully bending bow every inch should be bending

[Thesquirrelslinger]

I think you need a thicker, stronger, less strechy string...

[toomanyknots]

Nice work from a V challenging stave.
Del
BTW. Horn nocks are a right pain when you first do 'em, but it gets very much quicker and easier after the first few.

Oddly enough, I actually quite enjoyed making the horn nocks, except for one thing....Wow...this horn sure smells......unpleasant, let's put it that way.
Looking back, I kind of think I should of made Sidenocks, since while it's not a Mary Rose Copy I am using the dimensions as a reference...but oh well. these were my first horn nocks and I didn't really know what to expect so I went with the regular horn nock design.

I sorta like the smell in a masochistic way...
Mind I eat sandwiches filled with hide glue... but I am a cat
Del

? I eat hideglue when it is flavored and jiggly and chilled, in a jello form, but I never heard of a hideglue sandwich!   

[toomanyknots]

I think I am going to be the annoying negative critic here. (Although the bow is still beautiful, and it is very nice work, I have never worked yew so I am always jealous and lustful of yew bows, ). But I think the upper limb is bending way too much in the outer limb from the draw photo, it is hard to tell for sure as the tip is cut off in the pic but it appears you might have a slight hinge or beginning of a hinge in the upper limb, or at least the potential as it seems to be working all in one area. It is better to try to get the work a bow does as spread out as possible, as much as you can. Unless you are going for a purposely stiff spot, like stiffer tips or something for leverage. The entire middle portion of the bow looks to me to be doing almost no work at all, and is evident in the in the fulldraw photo and in the brace photo, (although it does appear to be braced pretty low so I don't know for sure). I don't think it's all that bad, but next time I would try to get the middle portion working more, and try to keep any one part of the bow from doing most of the work (in this case the upper outer limb seems to be doing all the work). Thats my 2 cents on the tiller anyhow. Very beautiful though. The character is fantastic. Thank you for sharing your work! 

[AH]

I think I am going to be the annoying negative critic here. (Although the bow is still beautiful, and it is very nice work, I have never worked yew so I am always jealous and lustful of yew bows, ). But I think the upper limb is bending way too much in the outer limb from the draw photo, it is hard to tell for sure as the tip is cut off in the pic but it appears you might have a slight hinge or beginning of a hinge in the upper limb, or at least the potential as it seems to be working all in one area. It is better to try to get the work a bow does as spread out as possible, as much as you can. Unless you are going for a purposely stiff spot, like stiffer tips or something for leverage. The entire middle portion of the bow looks to me to be doing almost no work at all, and is evident in the in the fulldraw photo and in the brace photo, (although it does appear to be braced pretty low so I don't know for sure). I don't think it's all that bad, but next time I would try to get the middle portion working more, and try to keep any one part of the bow from doing most of the work (in this case the upper outer limb seems to be doing all the work). Thats my 2 cents on the tiller anyhow. Very beautiful though. The character is fantastic. Thank you for sharing your work! 

As I stated before, I do think the tiller looks a bit funky. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I'm glad it didn't end up in the corner of the shop forever. I am still a newbie bowyer though.
as for the tiller-
I tend to favor a stiffer handle on ELB's although the warbow I'm currently working on is gonna get a full compass (mary rose dimensions reference)
the top limb is a bit weaker than the bottom, I tend to overdo the positive tiller a bit..
as for a hinge, I think I mentioned on that first thread I started when I screwed up the bow with whip-tillering that there was a little spot of deflex in the top limb.
Also, this is a pretty bad photo, and doesn't really accurately represent the bow's tiller, just that my brother didn't want to take any more photos. He didn't get a shot of the bow at full draw either, it's at probably 27" in the pic. The handle bends just a bit more at the full draw. I am also canting the bow in the pic.