Yellow Birch bow advice

[Mountain Man1]

 In the picture you can see the lower limb isn't flexing much. That few inches of handle being lower than center seems to make tillering a pain. Anyone have tips on tillering an asymmetrical design or just keep scraping bit by bit? Seems I'm a sucker for punishment, very first bow so I went with a knotty, crooked stave in an asymmetric design... what could possibly go wrong haha

[willie]

if you say it isn't flexing much, then you are probally right. pretty typical of birch is the rollerer coaster back, which makes it hard to tell from just one pic.
maybe an unbraced pic for comparison?

easier still is if you find a way to pull it with a rope and pully, so that you can stand back ad watch it bend as you pull.

is that braced or still on a longstring?

[Mountain Man1]

I think I had it at about 2" brace. Just enough to shoot it cuz I couldn't wait haha. I'll get an unbranded pic for comparison

[kbear]

That lower limb is definitely stiff. You could remove some from in between those knots (steady, steady) and definitely from the outside of them. Hard to tell from a single photo. An unbraced pic of both the profile and the side would be helpful. You will find a lot of help, support, and advice if you are willing to post more photos.

A very challenging first stave indeed. Most people cut their teeth on board bows. I have a house full of them! I will never make a board bow again though. Too sterile and cookie-cutter-mechanical compared to a proper stave or billets. You should find the satisfaction of turning that piece of wood into a bow worthwhile. Perhaps you could call it "Six Flags"!

[Mountain Man1]

I suddenly cant seem to figure out how I shared those pics from flickr, when i get that sorted I'll get some on here of the knots, an unbraced view and that rollercoaster section. By remove from outside the knots, do you mean essentially making the bow narrower?

[M2A]

Picture share icon thing is in the lower right when looking at pic. Use the bb code, otherwise it may come up a link not a pic. Most normal folks dont want links to your book or whole collection but just a pic in the post.  I'd suggest to preview before you post, you can adjust picture size before you post and usually when i dont preview they are way too large...
Mike

[Mountain Man1]

Thanks for the advice Mike, do you know if that layout applies to the mobile app as well? being a bit of a hillbilly in a very rural area I don't have internet and a computer so I do everything on the cell phone. I think the issue is flickr itself at this time, it has been acting kind of sketchy on me in other ways too lately. Almost as if it is only half loading. As for the bow, after some tillering and flexing my warps are coming back so I am going to give it a good steaming and let it set longer, I think I started back at it too soon and still had some moisture. I have another to work on while this one is clamped up, doing a 56" holmegard style out of Red Maple. Not the best wood as I understand but I went wide and plan on heat treating and possibly backing. If it works out it should be fast as the wood is super light.

[M2A]

Wish I could help ya with that Mountain Man but I do just the reverse and use flickr only from my home computer. Didn't realize that when I commented above. I agree they have done something recently, last pictures I posted took some extra time to figure out.

You may already know the following but a digital kitchen scale is a great thing to use when your waiting on a stave to dry. When the weight stays the same for a week or so I consider it good to go. Sometimes thats 2 weeks and other times its 6 after floor tillering for me. Good luck the 2 pieces you have going on right now.
Mike

[leonwood]

Getting the Flickr bbcode with the Flickr app or on mobile usually does not work well. I use this tool when I am on my mobile: https://tools.sportscard.trade/#flickr
This will tool generate a bbcode link from your normal Flickr photo link

@admin: Please remove this reply if I violate any rules posting external links but since this can help people posting images to this messageboard I figured it is ok

[Mountain Man1]

Sorry for the long delay but I have been quite busy lately.
Updates...
1) bow was fighting me on an even tiller, chased it down to a 10# @ 30" draw... crap, new plan.
2) Piked it to 42" and adjusted tiller, now it's 10# @ 12"... perfect! got a gift for my nephew.
3) test fired it... overconfident and drew too far, TICK (stupid pin knot). Crap, new plan...
4) So here I sit, pondering why this bow hates me. Not being one to accept defeat, I will work this thing until I succeed or one of us dies!

So, here's the plan... Superglue with a rawhide wrap, stitched on tight while wet so it will shrink up and squeeze the crack really tight. Also going to go over it thoroughly and apply the same treatment to any other potential bad spots to avoid further complications.

Will this be safe to give my nephew after the repairs or should I just keep it and make him another one?

[willie]

well, you are making yourself another one also?

FWIW, some find tillering a thin limb or very light bow even more challenging than a normal poundage bow.

[Ozi Sapling]

Hello Mountain Man1,

I'm new here too, but found Weylin's post on how to take good photos and get them into posts really easy to follow.  It's at the top of the 'Bows' board.

You got the important stuff done - the angry face on the nock.  My first bow was an awful crooked stave with lots of knots too. Not sure what I was thinking, but it ended up working, with a pretty woeful tiller and a bucket of stack at full draw.  But it was enough to get me going into the next ones....

Look forward to seeing the end result

[Mountain Man1]

Yes, I have gone through that photo post but it was a while ago. The directions were great but didn't cover mobile apps well.