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Author Topic: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?  (Read 2185 times)

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Offline Red-Beard_the_Gael

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Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« on: May 08, 2015, 12:41:51 pm »
Hi, I'm both new to the site and fairly new to bowyering having only completed two bows. The question I have is about my first one (and much better one) made from a "you finish" blank from Pine Hollow Longbows. It's Hickory backed with dog-bone rawhide, 65" about 62 lbs. Much later after I had finished it, stained and sealed with polyurethane and shot about 200+ times, I noticed that the top limb was way stiffer looking than the bottom. I was wondering if it would be safe to sand the whole thing, tiller some more, and then re-stain and re-seal the bow. I don't want to inadvertently destroy my first bow  :P
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Offline Parnell

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Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #1 on: May 08, 2015, 01:06:47 pm »
Pictures!
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Offline Del the cat

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    • Derek Hutchison Native Wood Self Bows
Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #2 on: May 08, 2015, 01:16:14 pm »
I re-furbished the first ever Yew ELB that I made after 40 odd years... it's better now than before.
Del
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Offline Eric Krewson

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Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #3 on: May 08, 2015, 01:36:23 pm »
All my personal bows have been retillered several times, bottom limbs that got weak piked and inch or so and retillered, little stiff spots that showed up after thousands of arrows corrected and so forth. For me any wood bow I make is a work in progress and can benefit from a little tiller tweaking over it's life span.
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Offline make-n-break

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Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #4 on: May 08, 2015, 02:08:54 pm »
Definitely. I just sanded off all the finish, piked an inch off the bottom limb, heat treated a second time and retillered the "Snakey Hickory Board" I posted last week. The outer limbs were too stiff.
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"When making a bow from board staves you are freeing a thing of dignity from the humiliation of static servitude." -TBB1

Offline Red-Beard_the_Gael

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Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #5 on: May 08, 2015, 10:20:31 pm »
Here are some pics.
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Offline Peacebow_Coos

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Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #6 on: May 09, 2015, 04:46:12 pm »
Yup, re-tiller.  That happened to my cousin's bow too.  It looked darn good when I gave it to him, but from stringing it only pushing the bottom limb and standing up in a corner it looked very similar.  He re-tillered and it still shoots great.
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Offline Weylin

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Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #7 on: May 09, 2015, 05:27:20 pm »
My advice would be to only scrape on the belly where you need to take wood off to fix the tiller. Then just match the stain and repair the finish in that location instead of trying to strip the whole bow. especially since it has rawhide on the back.
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Offline Red-Beard_the_Gael

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Re: Can I safely re-tiller my first bow?
« Reply #8 on: May 10, 2015, 01:15:57 pm »
If I can get away with just sanding and fixing the trouble spot I would do it. Just wasn't sure if the seal would be the best if not done all at once. Thanks for the advice guys :)
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