Monday 27 January 2014

Derbyshire Yew Nearly There

This morning I went over the entire bow rasping off the corners along the edges, then taking out all the tool marks with a scraper. This gives it a much more rounded appearance it looks like a bow now, not like a bit of 2x1 !
I then went over the back with 120 grit paper to remove any scratches or chatter marks from where I'd used the scraper and rasp to take the sapwood down a couple of rings.
Next a quick check with a taut string down the back of the bow let me narrow the tips a tad more.
Careful checking the thickness taper along the limbs with a pair of calipers allowed me to take down any high spots. I wasn't taking actual measurements, I was just pushing the calipers onto the limb and moving them towards the tip watching the gap between limb and caliper open up slowly as the limb get thinner. Any points that look thick can be spot checked.
This was a lot of work, but it didn't take too long as it had all done before and was really just fine detail.
I wanted to give it a good once over before taking all the way to 100# on the tiller, no point spoiling the ship for a ha'port of tar.
I took a couple of pics which show how the sapwood looks thicker on one side of the limb, it also shows where the sapwood has been reduced, it is noticeably thicker under the temporary nock where it hasn't been thinned. This is actually quite useful as it leaves extra wood to blend into a nice circular cross section for the horn nocks. It also means the horn nocks can be fitted slightly angled towards the back giving the jaunty look of a hint of reflex.
You'll see from the still grabbed from the video that the tiller is a tad stiff at the tips especially the left, but the tips will get reduced when I put on the horn nocks.
The video lets you see it actually flexing. I still have a few pounds draw weight to play with to allow me to fine tune the tiller and get the finish right. Whew!

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