Tiller Check for a Newbie

[joachimM]

Welkom Nance,

looking very good right now!
You've taken the blue pill, there's no turning back now from the bowyer's addiction.

Joachim, a southern neighbour

[Thunder]

Nice work for your 1st bow!
Welcome to PA. 

Cheers
Thunder

[JW_Halverson]

Good work, Nance.  It will stand up just fine for your first bow!  Better than many of us did on our first FIVE bows!

But now that you have been bitten by the bug, you might as well build on your initial success and confidences!  Welcome to P.A. and we look forward to seeing more of you around here!

[scp]

Incredible first bow. I would love to see the unstrung front and side profiles. How long is it?

[PaulN/KS]

Very Nice! 
I'm not familiar with the properties of Hazel as a bow wood but it seems to be working well.

[Nance]

If I were to shorten both limbs a tad, would the bow regain some of it's lost draw weight?

[Pappy]

Yes , but what is the length now and what is your draw length.
  Pappy

[Nance]

It's slightly less than 65". My draw length is 27". I was thinking a cm off each side. To get it back up to 30 pounds. It's  28,7 now at 28".

Hazel as bow wood is relatively strong in tension but not so much in compression. A bow should be wide, kept crowned and have a flat belly. It's fast and comes in handy bow shaped staves. Finding a good stave can be difficult because the wood often grows twisted. The colour is a beautiful white.

[joachimM]

Nance,
you lost a pound or two because the wood was overstrained in compression (it took a bit of set). Piking the tips and keeping the 27" draw will strain the wood even more, and it will take even more set and you'll be worse off than before. By the way, to gain 2# in your case you should remove 2 cm at each side (1.5").

What are the width and thickness dimensions of the limbs?

IMHO, the bow should define the draw length, not the archer. Depending on the bow (only considering my own bows), I draw 23" to 32". Shoot the draw length that suits the bow best. If you shorten the tips in a maximally strained bow, you should shorten the draw length accordingly to avoid extra set.

The only way I see you can regain some draw weight is to heat-treat the belly. This can do wonders. Hazel reacts very well to dry heat.
I'd try that, and also start making a second bow and collect some more staves for additional bows.

cheers
Joachim

[Nance]

Thanks. I will keep it as it is then. I've learned a lot from this build so the next one will be better.... probably 

[Nance]

Incredible first bow. I would love to see the unstrung front and side profiles. How long is it?

Can I reverse some of this set? Or just leave it like this? Steam, heat treatment? The difference between the handle and the tips is 2,5 inches. When I started the rough bow actually had a reflex of an inch.
I'm already over the moon by the fact that it went from a big tree branch to something that shoots smaller tree branches.

[willie]

Hi Nance, and welcome...

there are some tricks to regaining some poundage, although sometimes the results are marginal or regressive  If you have plans for another bow, sometimes getting some more experience  with the next project is worth considering, as the first one can be special to some.

willie

[Del the cat]

You can remove the set and regain the poundage at the same time by clamping/tying the bow straight and heat treating the belly (loads on my blog about the process).
Personally I'd stick with what you have for fear of ruining it, and make another. It's a wise man (or woman  ) who knows when to quit.
Del

[Nance]

Yeah, you're probably right Del.

[joachimM]

Nance,
what might have contributed to the set is that the weather in the Netherlands has been extremely wet lately (as in Belgium). With a moisture content of 80% and an indoor temperature of 20°C, the equilibrium moisture content of the wood will be 16%. All woods take huge set at these moistures.
http://www.csgnetwork.com/emctablecalc.html

Heat-treating actually avoids this problem.

I store my bows in a heated place in winter (the central heating chamber at 25°C) and monitor ambient moisture content continuously. If it's too high, don't waste your bow (wood) by shooting or tillering it. 

Cat litter material is a good absorbant of moisture, so if you have an airtight box in which to store your bows, add a bean bag of cat litter to it, but make sure to monitor moisture in the box. You don't want to have wood at less than 6% MC.

Joachim