I decided I was going to try and save a a slippery elm bow I made a couple of years ago. When I made the bow I really did not know what I was doing. It is an English longbow design. 72.5"s knock to knock, 1.550" width at the handle, D shape cross section, weighs 2 lbs. and it originally pulled 120 @ 29". I cut the stave two short, tapered the width too fast, rounded the belly to much, didn't work the bow enough on the tiller, and had the mid limbs doing to much of the work. It immediately started taking set and lost lbs. I did shoot it and use it as pull bow to work up strength. I stopped when I noticed the brace starting to change few weeks ago. Despite everything I did wrong the bow limbs have no frets. I've had another slippery elm bow fail that way.
I cooked the belly of the bow last week. I did heat some of the set out of the limbs, and had to straighten the lower limb when I was done. I spent today tillering. I took quite a bit of material off the handle and the outer limbs. I was able to flatten the belly some. The bow is pulling 130 @ 29". I worked it pretty hard. It seems pretty stable and I've not noticed any soft set. It has about 2.5" of set which is better than when I started. I think I'm going to let it set couple of days and I will check it again before I finish it.
I 'm looking for any comments or suggestions on the tiller.
