Maple board follow-along -- finished photos and full draw pic page 4.

[k-hat]

It seems to me that with that front profile you going for a more elliptical tiller than circular, right now it's very circular, which means your inner 1/3 or so are doing too much bending.  In the full brace pic the left limb seems to be hinging a little right past the grip, and it appears to be showing up as some set in that location in the unbraced pic (the lower limb if I am correct).  Course it may be the folds in the sheets messing with my eyes.

Perhaps working the mid/outer third of the limbs from here on out would be a good idea.  Or maybe somebody w better eyes will chime in :-)

[Julian]

Here is 16" on the stick.




My eyes tell me that I have stiff spots roughly in the middle of both limbs, and I'm a little afraid of a potential hinge on the left fade.

[Julian]

It seems to me that with that front profile you going for a more elliptical tiller than circular, right now it's very circular, which means your inner 1/3 or so are doing too much bending.  In the full brace pic the left limb seems to be hinging a little right past the grip, and it appears to be showing up as some set in that location in the unbraced pic (the lower limb if I am correct).  Course it may be the folds in the sheets messing with my eyes.

Perhaps working the mid/outer third of the limbs from here on out would be a good idea.  Or maybe somebody w better eyes will chime in :-)

K-hat you hit the nail on the head before I even posted the picture.

Thankfully I have plenty of breathing room, draw weight wise, to fix it up. I could also pike it and redo the tips if I needed to. Thanks for the advice on an elliptical tiller. I'm not sure what that looks like though; could you perhaps post an example of a good elliptical tiller for me?

[Julian]

Could I perhaps make the handle and fades a bit stiffer with judicious use of dry heat and tempering the belly?

[Julian]

16" again on the stick. not sure where to go from here, apart from removing weight for a longer draw

[Springbuck]

Eliptical tiller means the middle of the bow will look flatter than it is now.  Half an ellipse, cut lengthwise.

[barebo]

Both limbs look stiff throughout mid limb. More so on the right. 10 scrapes on each - exercise 25 - 30 pulls and check again. Leave the last 8-10" toward the tips alone for now.
Plenty of length there. If you get the mid limbs bending, it'll come around. You're in good shape now, but need to remove material in small increments or the tiller might change quickly and cancel all of the nice work so far.
I think you're looking good so far - Good Luck!

[Julian]

still stiff on the mid left limb, but improved.

20"

[k-hat]

These guys are pointing you in the right direction.  She's looking better.  Don't go past 20" until the tiller is right, and as barebo said take it slow.  Easy to get in hurry and shoot yourself in the foot. 

As for tempering, that is always a good option with most whitewoods, but I wouldn't try to use it to correct the tiller.  Get the tiller right, then you can bring the weight up with tempering.  That said, if the area out of the fade was hinging at around the finished weight, tempering would likely bring it back since it will make the limbs stiffer.

[barebo]

The right limb is bending nicely. What I do is draw a line right at the point where it bends too much on the left limb about 6 - 8" from the handle and write the word "NO".
You don't want to take any wood from there now as it's already bending more there. Get the left bending more mid limb to match the right, and then chase your weight a few inches at a time removing wood slowly and evenly from both limbs. With such a nice uniform stave, once you get both limbs even you can fine tune.
You're doing a fine job!

[Julian]

Thanks for the advice folks. I think I'm ready to finish it up and post again when I'm done.

[JWMALONE]

Ive been following this, nice job so far. How is that sugar maple to work with?

[Julian]

Ive been following this, nice job so far. How is that sugar maple to work with?

Very nice. I've been doing the bulk of my work with the spokeshave. Drawknife doesn't work, however. The maple is much softer than other woods I've used. It'll dint easy if you drop it. makes very fine shavings from a sharp knife used as a scraper.

[Julian]

Here I am at 24", approaching target weight nicely.

I can draw the bow to almost full draw comfortably now, and I'm beginning to see immediate changes to the tiller with just a 5-10 scrapes of my knife.


I've heard that overlaying an elipse on paint can be a helpful aide for your eyes. So I did that, and it's telling me to take some scraps off of the top limb mid-limb, and just a little bit on the final 1/3rd of the bottom limb.

[k-hat]

You actually should have two ellipses, offset from center, one for each limb.  This is because of the stiff grip.  Make sure you do that before you take any wood off.  The two ellipses will be nearly identical though.