PaulSemp's Selfbow Starter Kit

[JacksonCash]

Paul was kind enough to give me this piece of Osage at Marshall last weekend. It's the first stave bow I've made, along with the first bow that's needed heat treating, first pin nocks, all kinds of firsts. I learned a bunch from everyone there, especially Paul and PearlDrums. I know the tiller is wonky, I've got a hinge in the top limb to correct, and I may still need to do some string alignment on the tips, but here's some pictures:

The stave had a bit of a dogleg to it. The term "hockey stick" was bandied about...


After some shaping - it almost looks bow-like.


Showing off the degree of kink.


Some localized steam heat ala Pearly


Brace


Full Draw- Man that looks worse than I thought! Top limb looks like more of an issue than the bottom at this point!


Freshly unstrung.


So, some work still ahead, but it's flung a few dozen arrows at this point. I'm surprised it shot any, there were some dark moments during the weekend, but with all the help from the folks there, it pulled through.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Pauly gave you a piece of something, not sure Id call it wood!

That does look wonky. It looked pretty close last weekend. It seems like the bottom was coming around more?

[JacksonCash]

Yeah, I'm not sure what's up with it. I haven't done anything to it other than make the nocks a bit deeper and throw a string on it.

[WillS]

It's basically only working in one place on the entire bow, which is in line with the top of your head in that full draw pic.  It's really frustrating when bows seem to change tiller on you, but eventually you gotta just give in and let the bow tell you what to do.

Approach it now as if somebody else had made it, and was giving it to you to fix.  You've got a massive hinge, and it's stiff everywhere else - simple solution is to leave it completely alone at the hinge, and remove wood everywhere else until it comes round.

Not much else will work at this stage.  I'd also try heat treating that hinge nice and deep, to strengthen and stiffen the wood there. 

Good luck dude!

[WillS]

That being said... if it's changed quite a lot, and the rest of the bow was working much better previously, what could have happened is that hinge just decided to give up, and it's all crushed fibres there and no strength at all. 

If that's the case.... oops, because you'll never get the rest of the bow to sort itself out.  That hinge will always be softer than the rest, and I don't think there's anything anybody could do to save it now. 

But that's being negative, and you always learn loads by trying to fix mistakes, so again good luck and see what you can do!

[Blackcoyote]

Paul was kind enough to give me this piece of Osage at Marshall last weekend.

Gee, must have been more than enough firewood   

[paulsemp]

after you got the sapwood off that thing I was so embarrassed I even gave you that! wish I had a different stave I coulda gave you but I didn't have much with me. but then after you were working at it I figured even if you didn't make anything out of it you did get a good lesson in a little bit of everything that weekend. bottom limb definitely seems stiff, a lot but regardless you did not give up all weekend and had a great attitude the whole way through.and to me that's most important good job

[PEARL DRUMS]

Well said knocker.

[JacksonCash]

Yeah, I'm going to continue to tinker with it somewhat. There's still weight in it that can be safely lost, it can always become a bow for my wife like we talked about. The stave was better than the one that I came with, so I've got no complaints Paul.

[JacksonCash]

That being said... if it's changed quite a lot, and the rest of the bow was working much better previously, what could have happened is that hinge just decided to give up, and it's all crushed fibres there and no strength at all. 

If that's the case.... oops, because you'll never get the rest of the bow to sort itself out.  That hinge will always be softer than the rest, and I don't think there's anything anybody could do to save it now. 

But that's being negative, and you always learn loads by trying to fix mistakes, so again good luck and see what you can do!

After reading this earlier I went to check that area, and I don't see any frets or anything like that. It is definitely thinner there than the surrounding areas, but also wider due to the unique geometry of the stave. I did put some super glue into the cracks that were present on the bottom limb near that dogleg. Other than time I think that's the only difference in the bow between Saturday and today.

[George Tsoukalas]

It'll teach you.
Scraper that bottom limb 10-20 times and short draw it 10 times to work it in.. You are drawing it too far in the photo.
She'll come around.
Jawge

[nakedfeet]

It is definitely thinner there than the surrounding areas

There's your problem.

I was working on a bow last year, and it was looking really nice to my eyes -- accounting for the natural shape of the stave and everything. Got it tillered out, and it lifted a tiny splinter. Did my best job to repair it, and it seemed to be holding.

After about 50 shots or so, feeling mighty pleased with myself, I heard a pretty bad crack. Turned it around immediately the tiller looked off.

It looked good one minute, bad the next. Sure enough that spot is just a bit thinner than the areas above and below. Sometimes that's all it takes.

And I guess that's why we shoot in our bows. Just because it launches 1 arrow doesn't mean it'll launch a thousand.

[osage outlaw]

It was fun watching you work on that hockey stick at Marshall.  A stave like that will teach you a lot of things.  You might not end up with a great shooting bow but you will gain a lot of experience.  It was awesome watching you fling the first few arrows out of it Saturday night. 

Get that bottom limb bending more and then work the stiff areas on the upper limb.  Pay attention to your limb thickness taper. 

[Peacebow_Coos]

I've had a few change on me, but increasing the amount of exercise between wood removals has helped me a lot.  40 times or so, plus it's the original bow flex, so I can sculpt my guns while making bows
 

[JacksonCash]

plus it's the original bow flex, so I can sculpt my guns while making bows
 

Ha- Nice. I'll definitely give it some exercise after I tinker with it some more.