My second first wooden bow questions (TBB build-along)

[Tillerer]

Hello everyone,

Beginning archer/bowyer here. I've tillered one bow last month. It exploded when I tried pulling to full draw weight. I could blame the very dry crappy white pine board that I used but it was my first bow so I wasn't too surprised.

Started my second bow following the article in TBB. Got a beech board at a local wood seller. I have many questions, more every day in fact, but one of them is currently blocking my progress. The grain in the board seems remarkably straight but the board itself is bent. I only noticed once I got back home with it. Started roughing out the bow and being a noob I used the existing bend to turn it into a bow shape. Meaning the right side in the picture is the back of the bow. Then afterwards I read in TBB that you're supposed to be doing the exact opposite. Now that I know that it seems logical. But it is too late. I have a couple of options that I can see. Can you help me pick the best one or add more?

• Trash it and start over with a new board
• Just finish it as it is, accept the consequences (massive set? more explosions?) and then move on with a new board
• Straighten with (dry) heat
• Introduce reflex/recurve

I wasn't going to reflex/recurve this bow as it's not like that in TBB and I wanted to get a straight bow under my belt first. But I feel like it could work on this board.

Some details:

• approx. 70'' n2n
• tips deviate from straight approx. 1.18''
• aiming for a 40#@28'' bow

As a bonus: anyone have any experience with beech? It feels fine to me (better than the pine I had) but what do I know?

Thank you!

[Eric Garza]

Where do you live? You might try to find someone local to you who can step you through the process of making your first board bow. That will be way less expensive!

As for this current bow, as best I can tell from looking at the pic, I would scrap it and try again. Pine boards are not useful for bows. Do not bother with them. I have heard of folks making shootable bows from poplar, though they do not last long. I would try to find red oak or hickory, personally.

[Tillerer]

Hi Eric,

Thanks for replying. I live in Belgium. Would love to find an experienced bowyer as a mentor but so far no luck. This board is beech, not pine - as explained in the original message  . It cost around $25 so I'm not too worried about the expense so far. Would you still scrap this project knowing that it is beech? If so, could you please explain why?

Thanks!

[Tillerer]

Here's another bad picture but with a better view of the wood. Back of the bow is again on the right.

[Del the cat]

Don't over think it... Forget trying to make it into a bow shape! Concentrate on making it bend like a bow should... if you achieve that, it will automatically be bow shaped.
IMO tou don't make a bow, then tiller it... you tiller it and it becomes a bow.
Just allow the curved limb to bend a little more than the straight one... Like a rce with one person starting 5 yards ahead of the other... you want him to finish 5 yards ahead to have the limbs evenly balanced.
Loads of tillering videos on my Youtube channel (Del Cat)... some straight forward, some starting off uneven.
Del

[Tillerer]

Hello Del,

Thanks for your response. I was in fact watching one of your videos as you replied. Very interesting thanks for that.

Making it into a bow shape was a mistake, it should have been reversed, I know that now. But I had to choose one way or the other because the board is bent. So now it's shaped like a bow, the tiller is not finished, what do I do? What happens if I finish the tiller like this? Does it take more set than a straight piece? Is it weaker and therefore more prone to break? Would reflexing help?

I don't think I should toss it out though the wood looks ok and I've not made any other mistakes so far.

[George Tsoukalas]

Check my site for board info.

http://traditionalarchery101.com

Jawge

[Woody roberts]

I would finish the tiller as is since it’s your first one. If it works out you could flip the tips later or put in some reflex . The first thing to do is make a bow

[Tillerer]

@George thanks for the link, lots of useful stuff there!

@Woody "the first thing to do is make a bow" that makes sense. So I will do that. Will post back when it's tillered. Or torn to bits.

"don't overthink it" is great advice too, especially when you're just starting out because it can be quite intimidating.

Back to work then. Thanks all!

[Eric Krewson]

If you make yourself a tillering gizmo it will keep you from over stressing and hinging the limbs if you follow the instructions for its use that I stated in the link below.

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,61422.0.html

We all started somewhere, my first bow was a sinew backed osage bow from a board that was so poorly made that it exploded after about 30 shots, not even the sinew could keep it together.

Failure has been part of the process for all of us.

[lleroy]

Where in Belgium are you? I live near Bruges - made a few self-bows.

If you're from Hainaut, you might try to get in touch with these guys : https://www.licorneargent.be/les-arcs/