Finally! Some progress!

Lots of news-
Hurricane just barely brushed us, so lots of luck there. Its a shame that the same cannot be said of everyone in its path.

Bow is tillered! It is strung at full brace right now, with a string that actually has serving! Still some work to be done; I need to narrow up the handle, sand the whole thing down to a nicer finish, and then rub it down with some tung oil. I will be shooting an arrow off of it this weekend. Still not sure if I'll back it or not. We will worry about that later though. Here's some pictures:

Full Brace

Full Draw

Serving on the string- bit of glue drying on both ends. Serving jig made this much easier than anticipated.

So, there you have it- red oak, 42-43lbs at 28". I may be slightly south of 40 when all is said and done, but I'm pretty happy with it for now. Also got my Traditional Bowyers Bibles in the mail today- started reading the first, and it is full of good info, highly recommend.

Moving Slowly Forward

Things are still progressing, a little bit at a time. Originally I had no idea how long it would take me to build this thing, and the start of it went much quicker than I had thought. Tillering, obviously, is taking longer than I thought. Again, mostly because I only do it in short stints. I did a lot more this weekend, and have it looking quite good at 12" of draw. However, I ended up pulling a muscle in my back trying to restring it. Pulling on the bow, reaching for the string when suddenly  cat. She started attacking the stringer, so I went to swat at her and must have twisted wrong. So, that will slow me down a little. Like I need that! Anyway, more pictures to come.

Bracing!

I braced the bow. Not at full brace. I think the string is around 68-69 inches, and I want it to be 66. Still tillering my way to insanity. Seriously, I'll pull the bow on the tree; see some undesirable area; mark it and then contemplate my actions. Do I really want to do that? Back on the tree it goes, check again. I need to commit a whole lot more time to tillering  the few minutes at a time I am now. Here's the pictures:

Edit: Also, I roughed in the taper on the handle. That was a nightmare, lot of material to take off. I think I may use a bandsaw for the next one.

Special Guest

Here's a picture of the bow on the tree I took tonight- Haven't worked on it tonight, I've got a few other things on the agenda, but to make up for it; you can see Wynonna has decided to make an appearance. Lucky us!

Wednesday Slump

I am really, really bad about remembering to update this thing...
Made a tillering gizmo, but it needs some refinements. Got a string on the bow, I like tillering with it much more than with the tillering boot that I have- I may need to learn some knew knots or something, because I can't get it to hold without slipping.

I'll post pictures tonight (if I remember) of the bow on the tree and the tiller it is at right now. I know it isn't perfect, good flex near the handle that tapers off toward the tips- probably a bunch of hinges that I don't see.

Anyway, ran into car issues this morning, if they persist I may not be able to get as much done on the bow this weekend.

Reflections on Tillering

Tillering is an interesting process.

You have this item that you created- put a lot of time and effort into making it beautiful. Then you start tillering, and you realize how flawed it really is. Probably a metaphor in the making there somewhere. I've got stiff spots on both limbs, and trying to get both limbs to bend with some semblance of symmetry has proven tricky.

Once I get a chance tonight, I plan on getting it on the tree again and getting rid of some of the stiff spots I'll get some pictures of it up on the tree with some nice curved limbs.

Productive weekend!

Tillering tree built, belly shaped, and riser glued on. Here's some pictures:

Special bonus, you get to see a different floor surface!

Will have some blending to do once this glue dries.

Blurry, but you can see the nice rounding. I'd take another picture, but I've got dinner to make as well as a string!

Hmmm. This side is blurry too, maybe I'll get some better pictures of this area and post them after all.

The other end.

Sadly, I broke my big sureform blade, right at the weld at the top. Lowe's didn't have any replacement blades for the large rasp, so I bought a smaller one and an extra blade.

Shaka, when the walls fell... The interesting thing about this is that the last shaping tool on the hook at Lowes had already broken in the same area, hence buying the smaller tool.

So, the smaller tool isn't too bad, I may like it better. Still need to figure out what I'm going to do with the riser, I think I want an arrow rest, but I may just thin the whole thing out a bit. It would be great if I could arrange it so that the wife could shoot it too. She's a lefty.

I tested the tillering tree with my current bow, and nothing seemed to creak, snap, pop, or otherwise indicate impending doom. I'll have the bow on it later tonight, I think.

More Pictures!

Okay, work week from hell is over and I just got done with some more work on the bow. It was rainy this morning, so I worked in the kitchen for as long as I could before the wife let me know I was bothering her studies. Here's what it looks like now:

Still have some "smoothing out" to do on the sides of the limbs.

You can see the slight round going up to the handle- this will get bigger later.

So, it is vaguely more bow-shaped. I slapped the tillering boot on it to see if it flexed easier now that I took some material off:

The string on the boot is a bit loose, but it bends! On second glance, I should have not been in front of the book shelf, makes it hard to see the bottom of the bow.

Bit easier to get it to bend this way...

So, I've got to finish out the shaping and make my tillering tree before I get much farther on the bow. I did promise pictures of my string materials and jig, so here they are:

Goes from 48 to 70 inches right now, which should be all I ever need.

Serving string and jig, and my two spools of string, in the colors of my alma mater.  Go Lake State!

I'll probably try to make my string tomorrow, as tonight I've got a social function to attend! Hooray beer!

Quick update

So, the last two days at work I've worked for pretty close to 30 hours combined. Haven't had any time to take pictures or work further on the bow. Going to outline goals for the weekend:

1. Finish shaping sides
2. Hog out the belly
3. Shape belly
4. Purchase scale
5. Make tillering tree
6. Make string

Some of these will take a bit longer than others, I am sure you can imagine. If I get home at a decent time tomorrow, I'll get pictures up of what I have so far.