Help! pyramid twist!

[Bearded bowyer]

Hi all
Help!
I haven't had a twister for a long time.
What solutions/ resolutions are there?
Matt

[Bearded bowyer]

just to add...
Its a hickory/ bloodwood lamination bow, so probably cant heat it out without the glue (cascamite) giving up......

[Pat B]

Check the limb thickness from side to side.

[Del the cat]

IMO in the top pic the upper edge is weak so it is bending more. Therefore, ease off the thickness of the lower edge slightly.
Measurements don't always tell the whole story, as there may be a stiff area in the wood (knot) which makes one edge stiff despite being the same thickness.
A good test is to push the string hard across to that lower edge (sounds counter intuitive), so it's pulling more on the stiff side than the weak side and see if that helps to correct it, sometimes it doesn't take much nock shift (although that's usually on a longbow)
Note:-by upper and lower I mean as in the picture E.G top and bottom of the picture.
Del

[Bearded bowyer]

From the dregs of my memory, I seem to remember that you are supposed to remove wood from the side of the bow you want the string to go in the direction of. tried it....made no difference. the side the limb is bending towards is now thicker than the other side.
do you think I should just even it out and see what happens 

sorry Del, can you put that in idiot terms from me 

[bubbles]

This thread was a great help to me:  http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,27206.msg364029.html#msg364029

It think you were already taking wood off the right side though. 

[Del the cat]

From the dregs of my memory, I seem to remember that you are supposed to remove wood from the side of the bow you want the string to go in the direction of. tried it....made no difference. the side the limb is bending towards is now thicker than the other side.
do you think I should just even it out and see what happens 

sorry Del, can you put that in idiot terms from me 

What I'm saying is opposite to the excellent illustration in the link provided in the previous post... so I may be completely wrong!

Sit with your elbows by your side and your forearms out in front of you with your palms facing you and hands together (back of one left hand on palm of right) Your palms should now be obscuring the keyboard .
Imagine your forearms are the edges of the bow and your palms the nock.... see your arms are like a short wide pyramid limb?
Now keep your hands together at all times... make say left arm V stiff rigid and right arm more flexible and push you right hand up towards your face as if being pulled by a bow string.
Your hands can't come straight up towards your face because of the stiff left arm... they will go to one side, and if you move enough it will end up touching one shoulder...
Which side?
I'm not saying, but it worked for me.
Another way of looking at it...
In your pic.... which edge of the bow limb has bent more? (Lifted off the floor more?)
Does a stiff thing or a weak thing bend most?
Thus the weak edge is the one that is bending most, so the other is the stiff one that needs reducing.

I'm obviously taking out of my backside , which is probably why I tend to fix this sort of problem by shifting the  string across at the nock. Push it one way, then push it the other and see which improves it.
mind, like I said, I'm used to working on longbows.
Del

[lebhuntfish]

I think this picture may help. I'm pretty sure this is what you guy's are trying to explain. Patrick

[Bearded bowyer]

Hi Lebhuntfish
is that the same as the previously mentioned link? the picture is the other way up so my brain wont compute 
Bubbles, that is what I  Ive been doing, but Im now running the  risk of going through the blood wood into the hickory.

I wonder if its different with pyramid bows.....

cant decide what to do.....
I need a beer or three to help me make up my mind 

[Pat B]

The easiest way for me to figure it out is by feel. Put the bow limb between your thumb and fingers, move them across the limb while moving out each limb. You will feel the thickness difference. Remove wood from the thicker side.

[Bearded bowyer]

That's exactly what I was thinking Pat B
But is seemed to 'go against the rules' of the bend theory....

[Pat B]

That's why I do it this way. My pea brain gets too confused if I try to figure things out in my brain.

[lebhuntfish]

Bearded Bowyer, it's not the same picture but it has the exact same concept. But the other post explained it really well I think. Good luck and let us know how it turns out. Patrick

[bow101]

A little limb twist I can take,  I hate it with a passion.  Its a bowyers nightmare.      Its a real shame because that is a pretty bow and you put your time into a unique stick.   Good luck.

[randman]

This link is correct: http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,27206.msg364029.html
It's the best example I know of and really helped my understanding of this problem.

The second (illustration) is incorrect as it says the exact opposite. Having 2 examples with one of them wrong only adds
to the confusion. I've seen it (adding to the confusion) on a few threads here over the last few years. Flip the illustration over and look at
it side by side with the pictures in the first link and you will see what I mean. the illustration tells you to remove wood from the wrong side.

Therefore, if you look at the very first pic of the pyramid bow posted, the bow limb is bending towards the bottom of the pic and wood should be removed from the TOP side of the bow (as pictured) so the string will move back toward the center of the bow.

I'm still an apprentice at this stuff and there is a lot I'm still learning but this is one of the important things about tillering I've come to understand real good through messing up a few staves and limbs so I've had a lot of practice at this very thing. I've had to contend with it on almost every bow I've made so I've become real good at limb twist (and sometimes nothing works)....Good thing I have an abundant supply to learn on.