Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: batman on March 11, 2010, 09:53:41 am
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Hi my names Matt and i am midway through making my first serious attempt at a self bow made from green ash, The tiller is pretty shoddy on the bow and hope you guys could give me a hand in where to take material off, Im also getting anxious about taking to much material off because the weight of the bow is very high possibly 80+# at full draw, im not sure of the exact weight as i have no means to measure the weight, however the limbs are getting dangerously thin, i have also thinned the width of bow from 2.5 inches to 1.7 inches at its widest point. while im pleased the bow wood has proved very strong and resilient i cant get full draw without popping my shoulder out! The bows just under 5ft long for anyone interested. Now i have to attempt posting some pictures ??? :o
(http://dsc00275.jpg)
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First,I can't see the pictures,second you should never pull a bow back while tillering passed intended weight/draw length,and 3rd green wood is not good either,you will get a lot more set. Not
criticizing you but you ask. :) Love to see some pictures so we can tell how it is looking. :)
Pappy
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yeh sorry imtryin to get some pictures uploaded but im having some trouble. when i said green ash i ment as in the species green ash as supposed to white or black ash, the wood has seasoned for several months, sorry if that was confusing.
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My bad,It should be fine then,it seasons pretty quick when thinned down and the bark off.
Hard to say what you need to do without seeing it. Also Jawges has a good site for beginners to
get started,might want to look at it also.Lots of lay out and tillering techniques. :)
Pappy
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Howdy Batman,
Green Ash and Black Ash are not really good woods to make bows from. White Ash is a very good wood for bow making. That said, if what ya gots layin' around is Green Ash, go for it. But, keep it wide, 1-7/8" to 2".
Some sort of scale (cheap fishing scale or bathroom scale) is very helpful.
Here's a link to a Build-Along for beginners...
http://poorfolkbows.com/oak.htm
(That guy uses FG (Fiber Glass) backing - we don't do that here on PA.) Silk, burlap, paper, or most anything else natural will work fine for backing - or nothing at all is fine too.
And here's the link to Jawge's site, it's another really good sourse of bow buildin' info... (Thanks Jawge.)
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/
Good Luck,
Canoe
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Great advice. I've got multiple copies of Sam Harpers red oak board bow build along stashed around my place, I can see some of the pages from here. That's what got me through my first bow.
I also don't have a nice scale for tillering; the first time through, I made a tillering stick out of a chunk of 2 x 4, set in on the bathroom scale, zeroed the weight, set the bow in the notch, and pulled down to get the weight.
One thing I found out the hard way; you want to use the old fashioned kind of bathroom scale, not the fancy digital one. Trying to maintain a constant pull while the scale gets it's reading is impossible. =)
I can't wait to see pics.
Riley
saint paul MN