1" Lilac sinewed-Tiller help please

[DuBois]

Joachim-yeah I have been dwelling on how that is gonna work out some and also if I will need to cut off much of the levers to fix it.
I can adjust a little by bending levers if needed since the sinew stops just past the angle.

Thanks Peacebow and SB

Hrothgar, You know how it is when get a piece of wood that just speaks out to you, even when it may not be the most likely candidate.

[Spotted Dog]

 Hey Marco,
looks sweet.  I think if you could have looked at some Magyar bows that might have given some
help in the form of the bow. If the handle had some d flex. But non the less, a great project.
I would string it slowly when it's time.

Dog

[freke]

very intrestingI have been looking for lilac
 how do you season the wood? - the little I found has been very difficult to dry

[JNystrom]

very intrestingI have been looking for lilac
 how do you season the wood? - the little I found has been very difficult to dry

I assume i can hop in and give you an answer if DuBois dont mind...

I have seasoned quite many syringa vulgaris staves, what i think is the most dense specie of lilacs, and what i have found out best was: Leave bark on, and rough out the stave to near bow dimensions. You need to be cautious about the stave thickness, under 1-1 1/3" thick lilac is safe at ~70% air moisture. If you leave the bark on and rough out the most part of thickness, you dont get any checks. I've noticed that leaving the bark on the back also keep the stave more straight. And i never use any nonsense "sealings", glues, paints what ever. If you get away without sealings on lilac, you know you get away with about any other bow wood .

And dont be fooled with the stave thickness, 1" of lilac at short staves ~50" long, is a lot. I have one 51" recurve 48# @20" of syringa vulgaris, and its 3/5" thick at the handle.

[DuBois]

I agree with JN
I have gotten a few to make it through and I have been leaving the bark on for a few weeks and then reducing to rough dimensions with bark on and wrapping in loose trash bags or tarp in the humid garage.

This one being so little at 1" I bebarked immediately and shellaced it good and it made it in the garage rafters with only 1 tiny end check I worked around

[joachimM]

So how did this sinewed stave finally end up? It didn't look like it was gonna live with these long levers, but we didn't see any advances on it since quite some time.

[DuBois]

Funny you should ask now. I just grabbed it off the rack yesterday and am considering how long the levers should stay and plan to tiller it this next week when I have some days off and the kids at school. I will get a new pic up and was gonna ask for some advice soon.

[DuBois]

So here she is thus far. She's come a long way Pic from each end and side.
33" of sinewed limbs with 9" siyahs. Sinew is smoothed nicely with the PatM method and holding a lot of reflex. This is gonna be a tough tiller job so open to any suggestions. I will be going with the tree and pulleys screwed up in the garage for this little mama.

I'm hoping for mid 40's and 24" I guess. What you all think?

Gotta cut it down some and not sure just how much would keep the benefit of sinew (which is thick and crowned up good), while not overdoing it on the levers and belly.

Has anyone ever had sinew separate lengthwise while tillering? Never really thought about it until getting ready to start this next week.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Wow that's a lot of reflex. I'm excited to see how this turns out.

Kyle

[upstatenybowyer]

Please take this with a grain of salt cause I have no experience with this type of bow but, once you know it's bending a bit but not too much you may want to consider doing what I saw PatM doing in one of his posts a while back to get it to a low brace. First, he pushed it down on the floor, back down and let the siyahs do the work in getting the working limbs to start bending. Then it looked like he put his foot on one of the tips, kept his knee in the middle and grabbed the other tip with his hand. You get the point I hope. Perhaps he'll chime in and clarify any errors in my description.

I have made a bow from lilac and I can say it's a great bow wood. Really good in tension and compression. I would love to see this turn out a success and if anyone can do it it's you DuBois!

[ty_in_ND]

Thanks for the update, DB!

I have a friend with a large growth of lilac (the stuff that gets 16' tall) that I've been itching to get into to look for worthy staves, so it's good to see what lilac can do (especially since I'm in nosage land... well, not a whole lot of trees here really... I have to find bow wood where I can!).

[DuBois]

I hope you're right Upstateny. And hopefully someone will give me some good tips to make the tiller process less of a beast.
Hey Kyle, Gonna get to find out soon how it goes. You doing ok these days?

Ty, it is pretty twisty stuff so if you get some watch the bark for spiraling and good luck.

[gfugal]

I wouldn't reduce the levers. They will give you your good string angle, they also will help by decreasing the stress later on in the draw. Right now your working limb is the same whether the levers are long or short. It's not like a recurve where more of it reduces your working limb. The only issue is getting it to brace. a brace of 6" is going to cause the tip of the working limbs to move 6 inches. The ends of the lever won't move that much so it probably won't be parallel. If you wanted the longer levers parallel you would have to brace it further. If that's what you want to do then I suppose you should cut them down. Is there a way you can have a string stabilizer at the end of the working limb? I don't know what they are called but I'll post a picture. Its the round dowl looking thing.

[BowEd]

Yes... good point a bridge at the base of the lever.All sorts of things to be aware of here.I'm along with joachimM that the stability with it being so narrow could be an issue too.It'll be fun.I imagine lilacs' compression capabilitys are good too.
Your at rest picture of the bow leaves it easy enough to tiller it on a saddle on a tillering tree.No need for a peg board or anything I don't think.

[gfugal]

True I forgot about stability. That could be a huge issue. You'll have to weigh the pros and cons of the longer levers.