Hickory dickory tillering fun

[JW_Halverson]

So this is a hickory bow I am working on at this time. 63" nock to nock, bottom limb is 7/8" shorter from nock to fade, 1 3/4+" at the fade outs, pyramid design. Standard 4" grip and 2 inches of fades.

I have induced a little over an inch of backseat when I toasted the hickory belly, making the garage smell like a bacon smoker. At unbraced, the limbs are dead even, as it also is at brace. I have posted this on several Facespace pages and everyone says I am beating a dead horse by worrying about how it looks at brace, it is full draw that counts. I am going to accept that.

Anyway,  I am going to be finishing tiller in the next few days and was going to post here so that I would have the before and after pics to review on a larger screen than what the camera on my phone provides.

Pic 1, unbraced
Pic 2, braced
Pic 3 about 20" draw
Pic 4 about 24" draw

[Hamish]

Looks pretty good, regarding  a bow with a longer top limb.

[superdav95]

I agree.  Looks dang good to me.  I bet it’s a shooter!   

[JW_Halverson]

I agree.  Looks dang good to me.  I bet it’s a shooter!

Pretty light draw, but I have not measured it yet. The bottom limb needs to come down at least another inch.

[Hamish]

JW I've compared the length of your bow limbs, unstrung and strung and it looks like there is quite a difference in working limb length with the upper and the lower. It looks significantly more than 7/8" difference, maybe 2.5-3"?

[Will B]

Looks really good to my eye, JW. What draw length and weight are you shooting for?

[JW_Halverson]

JW I've compared the length of your bow limbs, unstrung and strung and it looks like there is quite a difference in working limb length with the upper and the lower. It looks significantly more than 7/8" difference, maybe 2.5-3"?

I just went out and re-measured. Upper limb is 27" from nock to end of fade, lower limb is 26 1/4". Keeps messing with my head, but the yardstick didn't lie.

[JW_Halverson]

Looks really good to my eye, JW. What draw length and weight are you shooting for?

I wanted mid 40's at 26, but a moment of lapsed attention and I took too many scrapes on a limb and ended up with a bit of hinge. This is pulling about 30 lbs by my guesstimate.

[pierce_schmeichel]

Hey, you could try docking the tips about .5in. to 1in. on each end. That could probably bring you back up to 40 and you should still be safe on the draw length then.