String follow

[Sharpend60]

How can you prevent a bow from taking too much string follow?

I recently made a red oak bend through the handle bow.
It has taken about 2" of set after bracing.
Ill be trying again of course but would like less string follow next time around.

Thanks guys

[George Tsoukalas]

That's about par for the course. Jawge

[Osagetree]

Induce 2" or 3" of reflex before tillering to try and counter any follow. Might not be good advice for boards though?

[ChristopherO]

Sharpend60,
If you haven't conduct a search for that subject and you should have plenty of information at hand.

[walkabout]

from my experience with red oak board bows it really depends on the board you start with and then how carefully you tiller it. also i think design factors into the equation. the bow i built with the most string follow is my shortest bow, being 60",50#@27". the bow with least set is my longbow, which is 72", 49#@28". the shorter bow took 1 3/4" of string follow, whereas the longbow only took about 1". the short bow also developed a crack i had to patch halfway through tillering, so im guessing that the grain/ wood on that board was probably not very good. i dont know much about reflexing board bows, as i havent tried it and have no idea if red oak would respond well. excercise the limbs after removing wood, and never pull more than your intended draw weight and length, especially not early on in tillering.

[barley40]

Well about the best you can do is be sure the wood is dry enough first, then as you tiller be careful not to bend too much at a time and never pull past your target weight. Flex many times after removing wood each time to check tiller. All that is pretty much common knowledge. Now then, as you bend wood it's gonna compress at the belly and stretch on the back even if it's reflexed at the start, so the follow is always gonna be there even if it's not apparent, it's the nature of wood bows. What you want to do is keep it to a minimum. If it's got a little follow, say, not more than two or three inches, enjoy!!!

[John Scifres]

Good wood, good design, careful tillering.

Getting 2" of set after tillering any selfbow is pretty good.  Any less and you probably have an overbuilt, and less efficient, design.  In other words, some set is unavoidable.

That being said, you can reflex a stave 2" and then the unavoidable set results in no string follow.  There is a balancing act here that only experience and/or natural talent can make you proficient at.