Thanks guy's, if one person gets something from this I am happy.

Today I put the bow on the tree with a long string, I do very little floor tiller, just enough to get the limbs bending a tad. My long string is made up of two leather boots I made, with some para cord attached. I like to keep the string as short as possible and still be able to put the boots on easily.
Here's a close up of one of the boots.
 
Relaxed
 
Here it is pulled a few inches.
 
Here's where I feel the bow needs some work before we go to a short string. That whoop de doo wants to hindge so I'll take it a little slow in this area. Hopefully we don't loose too much weight in this limb. But hey kids need bows too.     :D    
 

Well we might have lucked out Chuck!! Here's a shot of her pulled 8"

I think we are ready to put a short string on her. I like to use an adjustable square to mark the tips for groves.

Then set my square for 35 degs, mark both sides of the limb and cut with a Nicholeson rasp.

Now for the string, I made up a FF string 80" long with a loop on one end and twisted and tied the other. Here's a little pictorial on the timber hitch I use.






I make sure I snug the knot in back as well as on the belly.
The bow doesn't look too bad at a 3" brace, the string tracks the handle nicely. Still a little stiff in the outer third of that right limb.

This is a great build along Dano. I had always thought 45 degrees for the nocks, 35 degrees is also the correct spur angle for atlatls.

Let this be a lesson to me,   :rolleyes:   Let a bow re-hydrate when I use a lot of heat to correct a problem area. We had one heck of a spectacular disassembly. No one was hurt in the filming of this event.   :D  

On the bright side I got rid of that problem limb, probably should have used billets in the first place. And now we get to do a splice.    :D  
The first thing to do is get both mating billets a flat square working surface.

Get some center lines on each to help line up the template.

Usually I like to use a 4" splice, but with this handle I was forced to go to 3". These are 1" increments.

Then I like to use contact cement to stick em on.

Cut them very carefully makeing sure to keep the billet flat while cutting.

The two mated very well, so I mixed up some Urac 185 and clamped her up.

I'm mainly a lurker here, as I don't know enough to add anything useful, so this kind of build along is very useful to me. I thank you for it, HOWEVER, I wonder if you didn't have a blowout on purpose so newbies like me can learn from your "mistakes".    I've read a LOT on here and other places about how to build a bow, but not a lot on catastrophic failures such as this. I would have just chucked out the pieces and tried another chunk of wood. With 3 staves hitting my shop tomorrow, I feel good knowing that I have lots of help here in this group and from your posts. Thanks again
Leonard

Your welcome Leonard, I use to just use these mistakes to heat the shop,   :rolleyes:   but with the price of Osage these days a guy has to be frugal. I'm just passin' on what some good people passed on to me a few years back.

Man, I gotta get me a pair of them shoes  

I have been watching and then got a suprized.
Nice save.I've had to do that a time or 2 myself.
Keep us updated on how it comes along.
  Pappy

Wow Dano, I thought that would have happened any how with my 30" draw. nice job on the "splice- along". OH! maybe I am the wrong Chuck.
 Also, I am confused. do you have nice cabinets in your shop? or some cool benches in your kitchen? Looks awesome.
  Waitin for more.
Chuck

Shane, wally world $10 plus tax    :D

Thanks Pappy, we do what we gotta do huh?

Nice try Chuck, as if you need some one to build you a bow.

Guy's I have to admit this build a long is getting to be a comedy of errors, I guess I'm going to fast for my little brain to handle.      
 The splice came out nice, BUT, this dummy laid out the handle off center from the splice, so it may bow up in the tiller tree anyhow, we shall see. This will be a pretty good experiment.
You can see in this picture I used the end of the splice as center of the handle in stead of the center of the splice.

 SO!!!, Back to the layout, I started by using a weighted string to establish a new center line.

I like to use a circle template to do the layout, I use an 1 3/8" for the limbs and 1" for the handle fades.

Then I connect the dots. I like to use a french curve at the fades. Here's the handle cut to shape.

Here's some pictures of the limb layout. When I have a snakey limb I like to use a few more circles, it helps follow the center line better.


The bow cut to the lines.

Then I scribe a line to cut the limb thickness.

Next I have to cut facets in the new limb as I did earlier, and get this new limb bending.

Thanks for watching

The splices in this really intrigue me. I had always mistakenly assumed they ran against the direction the bow would be bent (i.e. belly to back as opposed to side to side), but it appears in your picture that the splice is set up to be strong enough to bear the weight of the bow being drawn?

Did I explain my question/statement well enough?

Anyhow, thanks for the build along!

Hate you had a blow out Dano.  But it ain't over till YOU say it's over.  Don't take no lip offa no stick 'o bow wood.

Sometimes it ain't easy, other times seems like  a fellar can get away with murder.  Must be Karma or something.

Chris if the splice was done with the grain or growth rings, it would surely break. This way is the strongest provided the handle doesn't bend. The fish tail splice offers the most gluing surface as well.

It is Karma David, you know it. I tortured that limb, it just got back at me.      :D

Dano,

That makes a ton of sense! Thanks for explaining it.

You the sain one mking the crop circles! Ilove tea in a mason jar!

Tea in a mason jar is good.  

Dano, why do V shape the belly? Is it easier to start the tillering?

Howard