First bow (hand-me-down) - Draw weight?

[putnamm]

Hi. I am an experienced woodworker and have been curious about bow making for a while now. I own and have read the Clay Hayes book, I watch quite a few videos, etc.

Recently a friend and fellow woodworker handed down a couple of hickory staves that he wasn't doing anything with. One was a solid stave. The other was actually a near-finished bow that he said just needed some fine tuning to get it right. I haven't done a whole lot with this one other than use a scraper to take a tiny bit of material off in areas where my draw tests indicated it was stiff.

The problem I am having is with drawing the bow itself. Now...I'm a grown*ss man. But I'm not what you would call "beefy." In fact, I'm pretty skinny. I don't work out... Anyway, when I draw this bow I do not get what I would call a full draw length out of it. I just can't draw it back that far. I have measured my own draw length, and it's about 28.5 inches. I don't think I'm getting anywhere near that with this bow. When drawing, my arm is not anywhere close to straight, and my bow arm muscles must work to keep the bow drawn (rather than using the structure of my arm's bones to do this, which I understand is proper technique). Basically, I can't draw the bow fully.

Here are the hickory bow's measurements:
- 71" long
- The limbs are 1.5" wide each at the midpoint between the handle's center and the knocks. At this same point the limbs are .5" thick.
- Knocks are .75" wide.
- An arrow shelf is cut in about 1" above the handle's center.
- The handle is almost entirely rounded and is about 1.25" in diameter. (I don't know how common it is to have such a narrow and a perfectly rounded handle... It seems more common to have a thicker, stouter handle that comes in to the crook between the thumb and forefinger. When I grip this bow my fingers go completely around the handle and wrap on each other.)
- I have a rudimentary tillering rack, and I have used a fishing scale to do my best to assess draw weight. From what I can tell, at around 24" the draw weight appears to be 35 pounds. I realize that draw weight is pretty low for a bow, and also that draw length is not my ideal draw length.

I've had a few ideas about what to do next. One thought I had was to trim the length. Based on what I have calculated about my draw length, my ideal bow length is about 64", so this is about 7" longer than that. I would then trim the limbs down to bring them to shape and the knocks to the same width. Another idea I've had is to use a scraper to trim down thickness of the limbs. From what I have studied, though, .5" thickness is fairly common? So I'm afraid I would end up breaking one or both limbs by making them too thin.

I have this second stave that is completely unshaped. Before I get started on anything with it I would like to dial in this almost complete bow so that I understand what is right and wrong with it and learn more about what I need in a finished bow. It's entirely possible that the best advice is, "Go to the gym and get stronger!" So, if that's on me so be it! But I'd really like to have a bow that I can practice with now.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

-Mark

[putnamm]

One thing I forgot to add: This is a flat bow. It does not have any recurve to it. -Mark

[Jamesh76]

Any pictures of bow and tiller?

There are a lot of other variables and consideration. How the bow is laid out, including handle and fade length, tapers, thickness tapers etc. Rule of thumb for still handle bow. Draw length 28.5x2 =57" + handle and fades =65" minimum bow length for static handle. What the tiller shape is compared to the width/length profile.

[putnamm]

I will try to post some pictures and videos here, although I'm always very bad at that...

Here are some videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlKhPOaxkT0 - I realize that this is not an ideal tillering setup. But this is the one spot in my garage where it would fit, and I also am using the only stud that is capable of holding the setup.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNPjdfo0FfQ

[Jamesh76]

It's very hard to tell from the video at a angle. The video makes it appear right limb is longer than the left. The limbs from mid limb out appear stiff. I can't tell how far your drawing and at what weight. I assume the video of layout is the back of the bow. It appears there is alot of runout in the grain which may cause breakage at some point. What is your goal weight? Reference your previous thought of getting too thin and breaking, imagine bending a 1x2 piece of 6' lumber vs a 1/4" x 2 piece of 6" lumber. The thicker piece would break first. Your limb measurement seem too thick and more thinning needs done as you tiller. Your parallel portions of the limb have a more elliptical shape then where you start your width taper towards the tip will become more circular towards the tips. My tillering is not perfect, but if you look at a few of my bows in the bowyers forums, you should get a better idea of shapes. Keep asking questions.

[putnamm]

Yes, I apologize for the poor video. It's the best I can do. I repeatedly drew the bow to 28.5" this afternoon, and it was coming in at 38 pounds.

Yes, the video of layout is the back of the bow.

Thanks for all of your input.

[jaydee2trad]

how tall are you? I am 6' but only draw about 26 1/2" with a trad bow

[putnamm]

I am 6' 4".

[Greg Felty]

How's the bow coming?

[putnamm]

How's the bow coming?

Thanks for checking. I followed up with the friend who gave me the bow. He said it was 40-45# at 28", and I had shaved a bit off the belly. So the fact that it's pulling 38 pounds now makes sense. The more I thought about it, the more I feel a bit embarrassed that I'm a grown man and can't draw 40 pounds. So I've been stringing the bow every day and spending some time drawing it, trying different stances, draw methods, etc. I'm very interested in bow making, long-term, and for the purposes of bow USING (i.e. hunting and providing for my family). So I need to be able to pull heaving weights. I think I'm just going to keep working with it.

In other news I just came in to a nice, long Osage orange (bois d'arc) log and am looking very forward to working with it!