Pacco664, full draw picture in in Devon in the UK, not particularly tropical!
Weylin, Thanks for the comment. Great to think I have managed to come up with something of interest to a master bowyer like yourself!
Was aware that it was a bit of an ambitious project for a second bow and didn't want to destroy the lovely pair of billets from Carson! Spent a long time building this one, but have learned a lot on the way, lots from you guys on this forum, so many thanks. Not perfect, but ended up with a bow that shoots nicely and looks the way I wanted it to.
Some of the main things I picked up for the future were:
1.The importance of monitoring set during tillering. I followed the method set out in one of the TBB volumes where you pull the bow to max draw weight at each stage and then shave wood to maintain an even curvature and gradually increase draw length up to the required amount (see the tillering pics in my earlier posts to see how this worked). In my limited experience, this seems to guarantee hitting the required draw weight at the required draw length. However, I think I could have done better with set. I am happy with the overall amount of permanent set (about 1 inch on each limb), however it is a bit uneven along the limbs - which means some parts are working harder that others (not particularly efficient and may have implications for the life of the bow?). Towards the end of the tillering process I compared the limb profiles with the original (traced on a piece of paper, and in photoshop) just after bending. This way I could see exactly where set was occurring, and by avoiding these areas when scraping off material to increase draw length (at the same draw weight) avoid any further set occurring in these areas. Unfortunately I had already got a bit of uneven set at that stage, which I think I could have avoided if I had monitored more carefully earlier.
2.First Brace: I think some of the earlier set may have occurred when trying to brace the bow for the first time. With a stretchy dacron string, had to bend it beyond the braced curvature to get the string on and may have overloaded it in doing so. Doing this first bracing a bit later and in a more controlled manner with a stringer (so as to make sure it was not loaded beyond the target draw and was evenly bent) might have worked better.
3.Steaming out deflex: Tried on the lower limb, to even up with the top limb. Didn't work. Not surprizing really, since steaming works by allowing you to bend the wood by compressing wood fibres. If you do this to steam out deflex, you are compressing fibres on the back of the bow, which then just stretch out again as you stress them under tension when tillering. It might work doing this on a non working part of the bow (e.g. flipped tips), I guess, but not in highly stressed areas? Interested in others views on this one.
