Hi Guys!
My name is Dor, I`m from Israel and I`m new to the forum (I`ve been lurking here fr some time but this is my first post).
I`m in the bow building biz for about a year, I`ve built several good bow (and several bad bows.... ) and I have some questions
for you guys so I might learn from your experiance:
1. How do I prevent Frets on the belly during the design stage? (I know bad tillering can cause frets, how do I avoid it?)
Dor, the most important element of design is making sure you have enough wood to execute the design you are trying to build. We use length and width as the design and find the thickness as we tiller. If your bow is too narrow it will still be too thick when it starts bending and more prone to chrysaling. I use something called a mass principle to decide as to whether or not I have enough wood. As a general rule heavier woods make narrower bows than lighter woods. For the most part the wood we make bows from usually ranges from about .60 sg to about .80 sg. So the lighter wood should be about 25 or 30% wider than the heavier wood. The wood you selct is also important as some are more elastic and less prone to chrysal. Let us know what woods and designs you are using and maybe we can make some suggestions ast to starting width and length etc.
2. which woods (in board form, not stave) are the most forgiving to bad tillering? beside stright grain, is there anything else I should look
for in a board?
Osage orange, Pacific yew, elm, hickory, pecan, white oak are all somewhat forgiving. Maple, ash, black locust, red oak and even cherry all make good bows but are a little less tolerant of design or tillering flaws.
3. After Tillering is done (and looks good) , I shoot the bow about a 100 times and then look at the bow to see if there`s something I missed or something that happend. I this the right way to do?
I would say yes assuming you did a good inspection of the bend and gave it plenty of pulls on the tiller tree before you started shooting
4. When I look for a board at the lumber yard, and I find a nice straight grain board, BUT it looks like it`s been there for a long time (might been exposed to bad weather) , should I take it or leave it? How can this effect the bow?
I don't worry about it if I don't see any spalting, checks or mildew.
5. How does the cross-section shape effects the bow (preformance, durablity, etc...)? how do I know which cross-section fits a given
board?
I feel the flat belly is the most forgiving, trapping the back is a popular treatment as well. Some designs and woods call for rounded bellies such as English long bows, thats why yew is so popular for this bow. I slightly round my bellies on forgiving woods but on less forgiving woods I go as flat as I can.
Well, I think that`s it...... for now...
Thank in advance.
Dor
