Snakey osage Longbow-ish bow build...

[toomanyknots]

Here is a copy/paste from a build I started on paleoplanet today...

Well I got bored the other day, and I thought I would do a build along. I know most of the build alongs I do are mostly just a picture of a stave, and then a picture of a finished bow,... and I know that sucks, . I will try to do a little better job and show the basic outline of what I do to. And yes, I hope I am driving everyone bonkers with the sapwood backed osage, . The stave started out 67 7/8" or so NTN. I started taking pictures after it was floor tillered. Hopefully it will turn out to be a nice little light weight mini - longbow.







To get it floor tillered and begin longstring tillering, I will use my farriers rasp. I used the rough side for floor tillering. Then switch to the smooth side during longstring tillering, and remove all the big gouges from using the rough side of the farriers rasp. If the tiller looks good, I will switch to a finer file and remove all the marks from the farriers rasp. Then I will check the tiller again. If it is good, I will finally switch to a card scrapper, which I will use for the rest of the tillering process. Keep in mind that this is all before I string it, all for longstring tillering. I am quite aware of the ability to create a whip tillered bow by too much longstring tillering, but this has been working for me lately.

Farriers rasp, and finer file...





My card scrapper...



To do about all of my tillering, I have started using this mirror instead of my tillering tree. I believe I get less set this way. I am thinking I might set up a pully system in our basement if the landlord (and more importantly, my wife) allows it. But for now this is working nicely. My wife uses it in this room to paint, as she is supposed to be painting her portrait in her collage classes right now. So right now, I am allowed to use it, yay!







To the newbies, I am probably pulling this bow too far on the longstring. Normally you would of had it strung by now.

My temperary nocks...





EDIT: I fixed all the typos, there was a lot, sorry, I didn't proof read it before I posted it.

[toomanyknots]

Well here is pretty close to where I started out with this stave. I know it might be hard to tell with this picture, since both limbs have already been a bit deflexed from being worked, but the right limb in this picture started out with a slight deflexed spot around midlimb:



Now there are two ways to deal with that in my book. You can do the smart thing, and heat it out to match the other limb. Or you can do the lazy, and aggravating thing, and just go with it, like I have did here. If you do just go with it, the deflex is going to need to be thicker and have more material than the rest of the bow. If you don't leave more material in the deflex, you will soon end up with a huge hinge. So when roughing out the profile, it is best to remember this early on instead of having to deal with it later. The deflexed limb will be my bottom limb, for a couple reasons. The first, is that the snakey part is cool, so I want it to be on the top, . The second is that the deflexed limb of a bow will almost always be stronger I have noticed, even if the bow is tillered evenly. I was going to go with a positive tiller on this bow, like I did that last, but it just was "positively" driving me nuts looking at a longbow with an uneven brace profile.

Here is what I was going with at first:



...and I just couldn't live with it. Had to fix it:



So far the bow is tillered out to fulldraw, 28", 30", which ever one of those it is going to be. I did this completely using the mirror. I will pull it by stepping on the string, and also by turning the mirror upright and drawing it. And ya, this is gonna be a pretty sacrilegious longbow, . Especially since, after piking it more times than I should of, I ended up at 62 1/2" NTN! I figure, screw it now. Why not flip the tips too? So, after shooting it in, I guess that is my next step before putting on the horn nocks. Right now it is sanded to 120, all the tool marks are out.

Heres a couple current fulldraws (well, 28" anyway.)





I am pretty happy with the tiller. I am figuring I will just stick with it as long as it doesn't change when I am shooting it in. It is pulling around 47# @ 28", so I guess it will probably end up around 45# @ 28", or maybe 50# @ 30". I can't decide yet if I want to flip the tips, or not. I got some perfect forms for it, that would just flip a couple inches slightly, but I am lazy, and it is looking like a bow right now. I'll probably make up my mind tonight, and if I want to, I will steam and flip them tonight. It is a rather short bow for a 30" draw, so I was thinking that it would at least help out stack.

[bow101]

Tiller looks awesome.. and that is one fine curvy looking bow knots.

[RyanY]

Tiller looks excellent. I have a couple questions. Firstly about choosing the stronger limb. Wouldn't the reflexed limb be stronger since the tip has to travel a greater distance and would therefore have more individual energy storage than the deflexed limb? Also how do you measure your draw weight tillering with the mirror? I use a mirror and tillering tree hand in hand but I only measure my draw weight on the tree.

[toomanyknots]

Tiller looks excellent. I have a couple questions. Firstly about choosing the stronger limb. Wouldn't the reflexed limb be stronger since the tip has to travel a greater distance and would therefore have more individual energy storage than the deflexed limb? Also how do you measure your draw weight tillering with the mirror? I use a mirror and tillering tree hand in hand but I only measure my draw weight on the tree.

Thank you. The limb with the deflexed spot is always stronger. Probably because it is not moving as much as the reflexed limb is to reach the same spot. Think about how the stave looked in the beginning, and about how much each limb has to move to reach the same spot. For the purpose of explaining this, you could say the reflexed limb bends alot, while the deflexed limb only bends a little, to reach the same spot. Even though the tiller looks even. The reflexed limb has to be substantially weaker in most cases to bend so much, to reach the same position as the limb with the deflexed spot does, which bends less than the reflexed limb. A while ago Del on here recounted a story about a guy telling him that he choose the wrong limb for the bottom limb of a bow. And he had to explain that it was the correct limb, it just didn't look that way, or something along those lines. This is the same reason you can end up with a tiller and brace profile that looks even, but does not work or pull even, when you factor in how the limbs looked before brace. Also, I measure draw weight on my tree as well.

Tiller looks awesome.. and that is one fine curvy looking bow knots.

Thank ya bow101,  . Alrighty yall, I can't make up my mind. Should I flip the tips or not? I got like a half an hour to make up my mind if I am gonna do it tonight...  . It is already a mini - target bow kinda longbow. I am sure I wouldn't hurt it aesthetically anymore than I have already done by cutting it down to 62 1/2" NTN.

[RyanY]

I see what you're trying to say but I'm still skeptical. My understanding was that each limb would take the same amount of force to get to their drawn point but over a greater distance. Since the same poundage is spread out over a greater length in the reflexed limb it just increases at a slower rate seeming weaker than the other limb. The deflexed limb would have to have a more dramatic increase in draw weight to get to the poundage at full draw. I don't see it as a matter of strength so much as I do energy storage in which case the reflexed limb would store more energy. I almost imagine it as two separate bows, one deflexed and the other reflexed, both with the same draw weight and draw length. They can have the same poundage but different energy storage. I don't see how that would change in a bow with a deflexed limb and reflexed limb.

[Arrowind]

That looks sweeeet!  Like others have said the tiller looks great.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Nice tiller for sure. Are the tips all sapwood?

[JW_Halverson]

That bow has just the right degree of snakiness, combined with the lovely arc of tiller I would have to say this is a mighty sweet piece of work.  Nice work, knothead.  Can't wait to see what you do for horn nocks!

[toomanyknots]

That looks sweeeet!  Like others have said the tiller looks great.

Thank ya!

Nice tiller for sure. Are the tips all sapwood?

Thank ya Pearl. The tips are actually probably half sap and half heart wood. You just can't see it in the pictures.

That bow has just the right degree of snakiness, combined with the lovely arc of tiller I would have to say this is a mighty sweet piece of work.  Nice work, knothead.  Can't wait to see what you do for horn nocks!

Thank ya JW. Should I flip the tips yall? I really can't make my mind up...

[Pappy]

Man that is looking good, tiller looks great, question,do you plan on tip overlays ? Pretty scarry cutting across the back like that if your not. You are asking the wrong guy on tip flipping,I do on most all of mine,my answer is YES.
   Pappy

[osage outlaw]

That's looking good.  A bandsaw sure speeds the bowmaking process up doesn't it.

[Del the cat]

Nice tiller, so busy looking at that I'd completely forgotten the snakiness!
Cool bow.
Del

[H Rhodes]

Nice tiller, so busy looking at that I'd completely forgotten the snakiness!
Cool bow.
Del

Me too Del!  I was so impressed with the tiller that I had to scroll back up to look at how snaky it is.   Cool looking bow.  I would flip them a little too.

[George Tsoukalas]

sleek, looks like it will be a great shooter for you. Nicely done. Jawge