Elm Stave Bow

[PlanB]

This is my third attempt at building a bow. The first two didn't last long, though they did get shot some. The last one, a sapling bow managed  thousand arrows before raising a splinter and chrysaling above a knot near a tip. I was kind of proud of that one for awhile.

The one I'm working on is elm. It's about 11 % moisture right now and because I quartered the log, and stripped the bark it dried with a lot of reflex -- 6-1/4" to start with.

Here's the stave. It was 68", and I cut it back to 66".

[PlanB]

I had hoped to make a basic bow with 2" at the fades to mid limb and tapering to tips of 1/2". But marking it out straight didn't look like it was going to work. Too many waves in the crown, and at one point the crown sort of wandered off center. So I figured I'd better follow that with my lines. I had done that on my earlier sapling bow, but had hoped that the elm stave would be more straightforward. I hadn't planned on a character bow this time around. I wanted something that would last.

Here's where I let the lines follow the crown, and also scoot around a knot.

[PlanB]

This is what it looked like when I cut it out. This pic exaggerates the shape -- the top looks massive and the bottom short and narrow, but they are really  symmetrical, the handle is only moved up 1 inch from centered.

[PlanB]

And this one shows the reflex. Same thing about the exaggerated perspective. The reflex is actually pretty even in both limbs.

[PlanB]

Here's a better view of it when it was rough sawn out:

[PlanB]

This was a couple days ago when I started beveling the belly to the lines on the sides.

[le0n]

i can't wait to see what comes of this

do you plan on flattening it out any before tillering?

also, to help cure the photographic lens distortion, squat down and center the camera lens with the center of the stave. this will distort the limbs by the same amount to give a more realistic capture.

[PlanB]

Thanks Leon. I did flatten it, mostly, after beveling. I have more to do on that to get it to rough and  flat shape to the lines.

I will let it dry more before tillering. I found after this last roughing session the reflex reduced 3/4". So probably more drying to do.

Here it is being flattened on the belly and roughed to a little more bow shaped.

[PlanB]

Where it is now.

[PlanB]

I've been gradually working the bow down. Gordon's Vine Maple bow How-To in this forum section has been very helpful with this one.

The reflex has been gradually reducing as I've rasped off more wood and exercised the limbs. It's down to 4-3/4" now. More rounded in one limb than the other.

Elm is very interesting to work with -- it has a sort of rubbery feel when rasping with the sureform. Different than hard birch did on my other two bows. Maybe that springiness is why it is such a good bow wood.

[PlanB]

The stave I used was the narrowest of the 4 I split from the elm I had. And being wedge shaped, and trying to follow the crown, one side of the handle ended up with a bevel on it. The stave was just too narrow at the center of the log. I was hoping to los it as I trimmed the bow down, but by now that's pretty clear that isn't going to happen. So, the only other thing to do is glue on a piece to make up that corner.

[PlanB]

So I took a piece of rough cutoff from shaping the stave, and planed it to match the bevel on the bow, and then glued it on with Titebond 3. I used some strips of rubber cut from bicycle inner tubes to wrap/clamp the pieces together, and set them aside to dry.

[PlanB]

The splice glued and roughed in. It's darker heart wood unfortunately -- but it was the only piece of scrap I had from the stave that was large enough to splice in. Actually, I kind of like it, even with the knot. I think the British antiques trade calls that kind of thing "an honest patch". 

[PlanB]

After taking off more wood and floor tillering, I'm at this point. The limb on the right (upper limb) has more reflex, and it is more curved than the limb on the left. 

Because the handle was offset 1 inch, it is also 2" longer than the limb on the left. It's also, at this point stiffer than the limb on the left. That, I know, I can alter by taking more wood off. But I want to understand something before I go further.

So, question, experienced bwyers,  do you use some means of correcting the difference in amount of reflex and shape of the natural curve (like steaming, heat treating)?

Or do you tiller in a way that corrects the difference so they come out even?

Or do you expect that the tiller curves will look different for the different limbs and work with that?

And if the last, then what shape tiller would you be looking for on the different limbs?

[Marc St Louis]

I'm going to moved your thread to the bows forum as you will get more views and advice there.