Looking good!! Luv hackberry...

thanks Coaster! I'm liking it a lot myself, seems very elastic.  

Well, i workd the tiller a little more this morning and went ahead and steamed the handle and put'r on the form to get that string aligned.  I'll give it a couple days to rest, and in the meantime i'll go on and glue on the backing and clean up the sides a little, then back to the tiller on Thursday!

After letting her rest for a day from steaming, i went on and roughed out the handle area yesterday and then tillered some more this morning.  Here's where she now stands. Low brace reveals a lot of stiffness still in that right limb, which i'll work on before pulling any further:



Brace:


And that blasted handle area moved back after i roughed out!!      



Gonna gently heat gun the handle area this time either this afternoon or in the morning before i tiller any more.

Since i'm not tempering, will 24hrs be enough time after re-aligning?

Thanks for any input  

I'm no expert on heating but I believe you need to leave it a couple of days atleast to rehydrate to normal RH before trying to bend it again. Looking real good. I'm starting on staves soon, so watching this one closely.

It shouldnt move back. How long sis you steam her for? I steam handle for no less than an hour.

Right at an hour, it was very pliable.  It may not have moved back that much on second look. i guess because i hadn't roughed out the handle yet, it LOOKED more aligned than it actually was (wasn't thru the center, but i was afraid to bend that far, being my first).  i read somewhere recently about corrections undoing themselves some after wood removal, and figured that had happened.  Whatever it is, ima hafta correct more before i tiller the rest of the way out.  

I may go ahead and steam instead of heat gun, don't have time to sit for an hour while it heats up!  Either way, I plan on continuing tiller again in the wee hours of the morning Friday unless that's too soon.  This will be the 4th steaming session in about a week and 1/2.

Thanks!

Well, I rassled her and heated her and rassled her some more. it took some doing, but finally got'r aligned through the handle.  She resisted the whole way but i think she'll keep her new position:



now, what to do while i wait on rehydration?  Maybe NOW i'll go ahead and glue the backing on while she recovers.

Diggy! If you try to heat an area twice and it wont stick. Try moving to another spot that will still move the tip or handle where you want it.

Unless you sealed the area with shellac you need to let id dry back out for at least a few days, a week is better. If you did seal it with shellac first let it rest a day or two.
 For me a heat gun is way quicker to heat up the wood than steam.

yeah, i sat there staring for about 20 minutes this morning tryna figure out just that.  Finally settled on adding a spacer between the limbs and my form so i could bend it more than otherwise, then heated up about 6inches further up both limbs to get that entire middle to give a little.  Whew!  it was a little unnerving, had to clamp that handle about 2" over in order to get it to hold 1/2"! What a lesson!  Can't wait to get back to tillering!

Looking good Kevin.

Pat: Don't have any shellac, i used crisco.  Guess that means i WILL be glueing on the backing and some other detail work over the next few days then.  Can't just sit and do nothing;)

Stiks: Thank you sir, couldn't have gotten this far without all the folks here!

well it is looking good, and heck if that string does not move center of the handle you will have  center of the arrow rest bow.

Kelly, don't think for a second that i didn't have that thought!!    

Well, not a good way to start the day.  I was tillering away, and did a couple draws in the mirror (no further than i have been) and  . . . POP!!  Hit myself in the face when she snapped in two.  No tick, no warning, just POW.  Well, here are the pics, never seen one break like this:







Any input y'all have as to diagnosis would be greatly appreciated.  This is in the area where i knew some rings were violated, hence the backing (which didn't hold together so well??).  

Stiks, if you see this, guess our hearing works about the same;)

Bummer   :confused:

Bummer man. Thats sucks, that what i think. Sorry for your loss.

Well that is downright disappointing. Was hoping that one would work for you. Sorry but I don't have a clue why it would break like that, though I'm sure someone will have a good idea.

Too dry!

57" stave...so that means the bow was between 55-56 in ntn. How far did you draw it when it popped? Jawge

I see to that there were ring violations which are never good. Oh well. Get another stave. May be longer. If you ain't breakin' you ain't makin'! Jawge