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[half eye]

Plan B,
     I have made a lot of quartersawn bows, what you have is the board relieving tension and the closer to final shape you get the easier it moves. This might help with this situation:
1. Make a square box (small) by screwing 2X4 down so the limb will lay flat between them maybe 14" long or so.
2. If you rip the 2X4 to the same thickness as the bow limb.....then just screw a top on the "box". If not then rip a flat board that will fit between them.
3. Steam the bow limb and insert into the "box" and move laterally as necessary to straighten.....with a loose "top" just hold down on it as you bend.
4. If the amount of bend exceeds the width you made the box, then "nibble" the bend a little at a time as you work down the limb.....this may require re-steaming to get it all. I have done this to both elm species, hard maple, ironwood, and white birch (paper) and have not had any "bad" results.

A lot of times the fresh sawed boards will look straight but squirrely as they dry on the rick. I've had good success if I place the green boards on the stickers and have them pretty close together BUT also place one even with the very end of the board. After building the rick I weight the top stickers with scrap wood or other weight.  That wont completely cure the lateral movement issue but it will absolutely minimize it.

Basically the stress dried into the board so there is no reason you cant bring it back around.

Hope that helps you some. I'm sure it's not the only way but it works for me.
rich

[stuckinthemud]

Hey guys I did say I still needed to tune everything . Nearly learned everything I need to, then on to the trade bow.....
 ; )

Here is my 'to do' list - ream out limb through-bolts as they are too snug; make limb/bed interface perfect; carve and fit locating lugs; make string/tiller to target weight

The limbs are significantly overweight, I have pulled them to low brace, cannot pull them any further and there is no movement in the riser so I am satisfied that it should handle the 40# target weight

[PlanB]

ajooter, Rich, thanks buds, that's really helpful -- and hopeful. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Re. stacking a rick Rich, the black birch I cut last summer (and granted it was only two trees -- so maybe not typical) really wanted to move. I had a couple of full width boards through the center practically split themselves in half. Rick was about 4 feet tall by three boards wide, and covered with wanes to keep the water off. I'll try what you said, next time.

[Ranasp]

Got a little work in on shaping the Black Locust belly down, which of course has me questioning what the hell I'm doing even more than before.  Logically, I know I have 87" of length to work with so if I can likely adjust what I'm doing up or down the stave, but in my mind I'm just sure I'm going to go one step too far and go "well, you can't add that back on." 

   In any case, I have a question about the arc of the back, it seems really curved to me, is that a problem, or am I imagining things?  Also how wide should this thing be?  Measuring it, I have roughly 2 3/4" on most of it, wider in some other spots.  How thick should it be?  Should I be going for a pyramid style bow on this, or something else?  SO MANY QUESTIONS I DON'T KNOW WHERE TO START. 
This is one of the ends, it's obviously way too wide and deep but it's better than when I started.  I'm a bit worried about making the tip off-center.  What I did was measured the center of the stave in two spots further up, then drew a line connecting them to the end in hopes of getting something close to the center.  Does that seem right?

In this spot I have a knot  that's dipped lower than the rest of the belly.  I can easily plane down to it (actually I'm using the draw knife for this, should I even still be using it or moving on to some other tool like a rasp?)

This is what I'm talking about with the back having a big arc to it, the depth is over 3/4" there at the peak, but the edges are obviously much thinner, at least at the width the stave is at now. 

[Fred Arnold]

Belly is fine so don't worry about it or work on it until you get the back ring cleaned up. Those tear outs were probably caused by getting too aggressive with the draw knife. You've got plenty of room to go down one more ring. When working around the knots put the draw knife away and use a fine rasp/file and scraper.

I'm going to copy your pic and post it with some recommendations.

[Ranasp]

Wait, I think I'm messing up my terminology.  The part that used to be on the outside of the log, the part I took away the sapwood, that's the Back, right?  Feeling like a newb, here. 

The parts with the tearouts are where I split off the inside of the log to try and remove excess material. 

[Fred Arnold]

Yes, that is the back. The belly faces you as you draw the string. You tore those out while removing the sapwood but you have plenty of wood remaining to remove one more ring.

With BL you may be able to get by with filling those with superglue and sawdust but if you have more of them I'd take it down a ring.

[Ranasp]

...But that's not the sapwood side that's ripped out.  :/  The part that's all rough and ripped is the part that was closest to the center of the log.

[Fred Arnold]

Then you're good to go. You cleaned the belly up so good that I thought it was the back

[Ranasp]

Whew!  Had me making a face like this D: for a bit there.

[PlanB]

Now I'm really confused. .....I decided to take the bow out and shoot it, just to see how the side bend was affecting it before I steamed it. And it shot great patterns (for me). I shot eight rounds of 7 arrows, just enjoying it. I took it back inside still braced because it was just starting to rain -- I'd have stayed out shooting, if I could have. And I sighted down the bow, and here's what it looks like (first photo):

Unstrung, though, I can see the side bend (second photo):

Maybe a little hard to see in the photo, but the curve is to the right. Seems to pull out when braced. So, now I'm not sure what I ought to do. It's spot on for draw weight, draw length, lots of early string tension, it's completely tillered. I just hate to steam it at this point. What do you guys think?

[ajooter]

DO NOTHING!!!  Fred gave you my address right?@!

Nothing wrong with that bow as is!  Made a couple just like that.

[Swampman]

I agree, do nothing b,  if it is good braced and shoots that well, go ahead and send it to Minnesota.  I will gladly take it into the swamp and shoot a swampbuck with it.   

[---GUTSHOT--->]

Swamp man. I would leave as is if it shoots good draws good got the weight then it has to be good. Looks good too.

Ranasp on your BL what's the weight and draw your looking for. My BL I made is 50lb I made it 15/8 in wide at 62" long from my fade I came down with parallel limbs 12" then tapered to 1/2" tips. That's because my stave wasn't wide enough to make a pyramid bow. I would recommend you to have that bow at least 17/8-2" wide at fade to 1/2 at tips. Once you get that 1/2 thick is a great starting point on your limbs. Mine are a shade over 3/8 thick finished. Any ? Please feel free to ask there is great people on here to answer all your ?  If you have a heat gun once you get down to 1/2 thick on limbs the heat the belly of each limb from fade to about 5" from tip. I think this really helps BL a lot. But that's just me. Good luck I have faith you will make a good bow.

[ajooter]

I got dibs first swamp thing!