live and learn. adventures in tillering.

[jtbluefeather871]

Worked on these two bows this week.   I know my tillering needs practice, and I will be doing more practicing soon!

The R/D turned out to be #25. I learned that no matter how slow I go, there is a line when tillering that I should not cross, cause if I do it drops weight REALLY fast    .




The other one was a cut out demo at the weekend bow build last weekend. Backed with an old silk tie, and draws #35@28".  

They shoot pretty well, all things considered. The shorter bow has already been adopted by my 7 year old son. And I'll keep the tie bow for target practice!  Gotta work on my form and my aim. Improve those while I improve my skills at bow making. I'm anxious to see how that actionwood looks all finished up, too. Should be a pretty bow at least.     Thoughts? Opinions? Has someone done a how to on tillering R/D bows?  I'm going to try one with just R next I think. And a few more bow boards for tillering practice.

[jtbluefeather871]

The R/D bow is 66" hickory backed hickory, and the other is 72" red oak.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Dont be so hard on yourself, your tillers arent bad at all because you can draw and shoot them. The only thing I would say is leave the last 8-9" of your RD bows a tad stiffer. They are levers in that type of bow and need to be stiff enough to bend the working portion. You done good on both bows and should be proud of yourself.

[rmorris]

John,
You should be very proud of yourself. You got 2 shooting bows and I do have to say for first time bows your riser design is very sharp! I have noticed that the first bows people make can come out rather square and bulky but not yours. Keep up the good work.

[mwosborn]

I agree - they look pretty good to me.  Nice work.

[KellyG]

Not bad I would shoot them. Are you using a gizmo?

[jtbluefeather871]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I'm addicted to this like I am to knife building, so it'll only get better!  PD -  I'll use that advice on my next r/d. I think I'm starting to understand the physics behind it. That'll help my tillering, too!
Kelly- nope. Haven't built one yet. But I do have a 6" piece of bloodwood that I'm using as a basic gizmo. Then a crayon to mark the spots to sand. I just read the how to build a gizmo thread today, so that may be a project for soon! Thanks again!

[D]

The best thing anyone told me that helped my grasp the R/D tillering concept was that they need to kind of unroll when they are drawn.  That may not help ya out any but it sure helped me.  Any I'm with everyone else they are great looking bows.  Give yourself some credit.  My first r/d came in at a whopping 33# when I wanted it 55 to 60 and ended up getting  a terrible hinge and  had a riser that looks like a cocobolo 2x4.  I keep it around to remind me to slow down.  That actionwood looks sweet.  I'd like to see what it looks like with some finish on it too.  Congrats for building two shooter bows.

[Roy from Pa]

Not bad JT, ya done good. Here is a r/d bow at brace, then full draw. Might give ya an idea of what to look for. On this bow I did flip the tips up 1 1/2 inches before glue up, starting at 7 inches in from the tip.