Tim....The bow sits after shooting with about 3/4" of tip set back.Would of liked more but set happens as they say.It returns to 1.25" after 2 hours of resting and after 2 hours brace time and shooting 40 arrows or so.It gains another 1/8" to 1 and 3/8" over night.I expect that to go down farther a bit.It's a fresh bow yet.All in all the wood is telling me I'm ok and not being stressed too much.Been fine tuning the handle arrow pass and believe I about got it right.With a 5 and 5/8" brace from belly of handle it shoots the best.The arrows are 30" long and in the low 50s' of spine weight.Normally with a B50 string the spine of the arrow would be in the 45 to 50 spine weight but I'm shooting a stiffer fast flight string so the spine needs to be a bit higher.I did have to put a couple of Robins' wooly silencers on it though because the string tension is pretty good like a banjo string.It did hum after shooting.Guess that's wasted energy there......lol.I'll keep trying....lol.The bow did show a slight increase in positive tiller after 1 day of shooting so I adjusted that.It weighs 17.75 ounces now.I like 1/8" positive tiller.No more.Some are almost even tillered or 1/16" positive tiller.
Your crepe myrtle bow really looks sweet.I did make my first 18 bows with a hatchet,draw knife,rasp,and a pocket knife.I believe it's still good to do it that way.You give the wood time to dry out nicely and see any stiff areas you need to work on.The fellas here said you'll make more bows Ed faster with a bandsaw and learn faster.I got one then.A person still can't get in a hurry with these self bows.I've used glass lots of times to clean up horn nicely before.