Hickory Backed Cherry R/D -- Tiller-a-long!

[NruJaC]

 Hey guys, working on a hickory backed cherry r/d. Hoping to get it to pull 45#@28". Since I've never built an R/D before, I thought it would be a good idea to have someone watching over my shoulder as I go. I'm gonna try and do as much of it myself as I can, as a learning experience, but stop me if you think I'm about to mess up!

Some stats: It's 1-1/2" wide from the handle to midlimbs, tapering from there to 1/2" nocks, 64" ntn. I plan to let it bend through the handle. The hickory is a little thick at 1/4" right now, but I plan to thin it out and trap it before I start tillering. I'm also a little worried about this piece of hickory (it was a gift from my dad a few years back, and he's a little peeved I haven't used it yet). It has some pretty bad grain. As a result, I've procured some silk from my grandma and intend to back the hickory with it (after I've thinned it out of course). Hopefully that'll make it tension safe. Any thoughts on that? As for the trapping, I was thinking of just giving it a fairly decent crown. Any measurements I should work towards?

Progress so far, I've got the whole thing glued up and I'm waiting on it to dry. I gave it ~4" of reflex, and 1" of deflex. I figure the bow will take some set and increase the amount of deflex while decreasing the amount of reflex before I finish tillering it anyway, so I didn't want to glue in too much deflex (especially since I intend the handle to bend).

First pic: bow in form. Yea, its a useless thing to post, but I want to make sure I know how.


Both limbs are the same length, that's just some fluff from the wrap I used in place of the billion clamps I don't own.

Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

[OldBow]

Here's my advice. Get that bow off that table before you get in trouble

[Kent D.]

I have a love hate thing going with cherry.  When I get a bow made from it, it is a fast and sweet shooter.  But more often cherry will have unseen, bad spots in the wood that cause bows to break even with the best of tiller.  Good luck.

[NruJaC]

@Oldbow: haha, I just needed a place to rest it and the ledge on that table perfectly matched the height of the clamps. No one noticed or complained  .

@burnie: Yea, I've heard that about cherry. Hopefully, this goes well! The pin knots that seem to be on every piece of cherry I've ever seen are a little worrisome, but hopefully they don't claim this bow.

Anyway, sorry about the delay in getting progress on here. I've had to wait for glue to dry on various things (hickory backing, silk, tip overlays). Anyway, I've finished up the long string tillering so far today, and intend to get it braced for the first time in a little while (need to make a new string).

Here's the bow out of the form with the hickory thinned and trapped:


And here's the bow at 9 or so inches of string movement (which translated to about 5" of tip travel).


Yes, the right limb is pretty stiff out of the handle. There are some pin knots right there so I intended to keep that area a bit stiff; I may be over doing it. Thoughts? The overbending appearance of the rest of the limb results from that, so perhaps I should get it bending a little more. The right limb is stiffer by about 1/4", so I'll probably make it the lower limb if that carries through. Anyway, as soon as I get a new string made, I'll brace it and post pics of that. Hopefully, I can get this thing to full brace today. More later!

Oh, and ignore the blocky tip overlays for now, I intend to shape them, I just wanted the ability to use temporary string nocks that would be easily removable. Once I finish tillering, I'll get that shaped, the backing trimmed, etc..

Thanks for any help you guys can provide!
Arjun

[Ryano]

Scrape from mid limb out to the tips on both sides. You need to get the outer limbs working some more.