# Building an American Flat Bow



## Sanford (Jan 26, 2009)

If you broke them trying to bend just to brace, it sounds more like you are forcing things ahead of the initial tiller. Not that you won't need a backing in the end, either. I get them to easily bending into brace and shape via floor tiller before ever working up to stringing, and never force that position. You could have other issues, and without seeing, no way to determine, but snapping just trying to brace leads me to believe "forcing" the initial process may be your issue.


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## musiclife (Jun 25, 2012)

i "roughed out" the bow to make the limbs 3/4 inch thick near the handle and 3/8" near the ends..i then attached a long string...bent it, and saw that it had a pretty even tiller. I then low-braced it, again fairly even bend. i went to full brace and it snapped. Again, no riser..so the handle was only about 3/4 inch thick. would adding a riser help?


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## Sanford (Jan 26, 2009)

3/4" thick at the grip would have made it bend through the handle more and should have helped relieve overall stress more than hurt, depending on where it broke. Since a glue on handle will stiffen the middle some more, and backing will stiffen the stave some more, I usually glue up all first to make a stave. Don't have to do first, but that will be the final bow anyway, so might as well tiller out what will be the end product. 

It could be the wood - red oak is generic term for type of oak as much as it is a specific oak , which can make up many oaks sold in box stores and lumber yards. I recently tried a Peruvian Walnut, which many walnuts are excellent wood - Brazilian (Ipe) being one. My walnut I knew from working it was gonna be marginal. It was worse than that. Floor tillered beautifully, thought it might work at last, braced, and compression on light tugs crazed it out immediately.


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## musiclife (Jun 25, 2012)

I really didnt tiller it (had someone look at she and it said it was bending pretty evenly). Should I spend more time making a good tiller? Also i tied the string to the bottom nock, and the top of the loop on the string reached about 4 or 5 inches below the top nock when unstrung. Maybe my string was too short? and it broke in the handle


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## Sanford (Jan 26, 2009)

Though it can take practice and reference from previous bows, I try to get the bow "acting like a bow instead of a stave" by floor tillering first. If it's not at least bending easily and acting like it can take a string, it's too soon to string. If you stress it out too much at first, the damage is already done. Since it's not that hard to string a longer 55# bow by hand, with the proper length string, it doesn't take that much resistance to reach brace bending just by hand.

Yes, it sounds like you started with a short string. It probably broke at the handle as that was where the most bending from leverage took place, indicative that the rest of the working bow didn't give in much to the bending. 3/4" ain't that much meat there to begin with. 1/2" of handle on top of that would suffice.


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## musiclife (Jun 25, 2012)

i just saw a video of floor tillering..how do you get it to "easily bend" with floor tillering?


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## Sanford (Jan 26, 2009)

musiclife said:


> i just saw a video of floor tillering..how do you get it to "easily bend" with floor tillering?


I think this thread will ultimately go in the "build along" forum, so if it disappears here, check back there, but here's a starter you can look at - this guy has helped me tremendously: http://www.wwgoa.com/articles/projects/building-your-own-long-bow/


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## GPW (May 12, 2012)

Red oak is not a very forgiving bow wood , white oak would be better , Hickory best for new bowmakers ... And it’d better be straight grained too (see pic)... and even then a backing may help ... 
* The Tillering is the Most Important part of making a bow* ... Two hints : Never stretch the bow beyond it’s intended draw weight , even if it’s only a short draw .. 
Once you have a bow bending evenly for it’s design , leave it strung overnight and work it up to it’s draw length Gradually ... The traditional American flat bow bends more mid limb , and has a stiff handle .. and will have a more arc of a circle tiller with a flat handle area. The taper is critical to even bending .. 
An easier bow to start with is a Pyramid bow that almost tillers it self ... almost ...


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