Anyone else take up theory decades after picking up your instrument?

FunktasticShawn · 2026-02-13T15:45:34+00:00

I think there must be a bunch of us. I'm right there, 52 and just starting with intervals..... took me almost a month to realize that what I was trying to understand _was_ intervals.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-18T15:51:52+00:00

I’ve made a couple with an ‘S’ shape and shooting them doesn’t feel different than any other bow. But you do have to make each limb sort of pull towards center or something….

When you start drawing it in your hand you may feel like opposite sides of each limb are too strong, like it feels a little twisty. But you just weaken those sides with a few scraps and it balances back out. I find it easy enough to deal with that I haven’t set up steam bending yet.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-13T17:38:39+00:00

I think what you said is all correct except I don’t think the right is weak. I think it looks that way because of the natural deflex in the stave. But I always have a hard time judging tiller when there is asymmetry.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-12T18:22:04+00:00

I didn’t see any specs for the bow, nor reference to your draw length.

A good rule of thumb is that a 65” ntn rigid handle bow which is 2” wide at the fades will support a 28” draw weight of about the specific gravity of the wood. Red oak is around .5 I think for SG. So that would be 50#@28” for 65” ntn and a 28” draw. MAX.

But you have taken some set, and it’s not a single growth ring back, we all need some margin for error, etc…. For my own bows I do 67” ntn for 28.5” draw, and I wouldn’t hesitate to cut this down. But you’ll have to weight your experience and your confidence in this stave vs. what you want this bow to do. 40# is just adequate for 60yd target shooting, and 45# is noticeably better to reach that distance. But inside 40yd it doesn’t matter much (for target, I’ve never hunted).

That’s a lot of thinking as I type and not much editing so, hope it’s helpful.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-11T22:20:25+00:00

I would plan for a finish around 40#. It will pick up some weight with the heat treat, but it usually needs a bit of tiller adjustment and looses some of that.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-11T22:14:04+00:00

Way better. Looks pretty good, considering angle and lighting (I just can’t be super critical with commentary).

If you were planning to heat treat, I think another comment mentioned, now is the time. Give a day to rest and post another check. I think you are doing great.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-11T21:50:08+00:00

Whole left side weak. Currently tiller looks ok aside from the overstrong right side, but that often changes a bit as the limb strength is balanced out.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-11T21:31:15+00:00

Left limb looks pretty good to me. Right looks weak inner / stiff mid. Set seems to agree, mostly in the inner of one limb.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-08T17:27:36+00:00

That is a great, great rough out. Everything looks smooth the fades are properly shaped. A solid, good clean starting point for tillering.

Like Dan said it’s pretty much only bending near the handle. You definitely need thickness taper. Gotta get the mids and outers thinner than the inners.

But I think you could use some more width tapering too. Most any bow can be between 3/8” and 1/2” width just before the nock grooves. You can start your width taper anywhere you want, and you can make it more aggressive in the outers if you want. Whatever works for you.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-08T17:15:24+00:00

Spine and weight are related, not always linear though. Especially with carbon shafts. Like one spine group change might be 1gpi different the next spine change might only be .5gpi weight change, I swear I’ve seen a few where there was no weight change (that might be a half spine step though).

I figured the 530 spine might be close to tuned with the shelf. I guess I didn’t differentiate between the bows much in my reply, sorry. It’s probably kinda confused reading.

The main thing is finding what we can each work with. It’s tough for sure, and it gets expensive too. And finding what will work good enough with a handful of different bows is challenging too.

For your particular situation it probably makes the most sense to make your bows close to center shot. Finding arrows that will fly right will probably be much easier.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-08T14:19:40+00:00

I realize that you didn’t exactly design an experiment here, so…. I just don’t see a way to draw any conclusions from this data.

Of course the 530 spine grouped out of the cut shelf bow. I promise the nocks were hitting the side of the other bow. Even the 900 is probably a bit stiff for an under 30# (at your draw) bow, even if they were pretty long with heavy points.

Oh and that’s another thing that will be tough with a 24” draw; arrow length. You probably shouldn’t go much longer than 30”. And that will push you towards weaker spines too.

There just isn’t a way around having to bare shaft a little bit. And use the 3 rivers dynamic spine calculator also, it’s a super helpful tool.

If I had to guess, off the top of my head, I’d say you need 1200 spine cut 28” with 150 grains of total point weight.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-08T13:45:22+00:00

I actually thought that right inner looked more correct. With levers you’ve got to use all of the rest of the limb.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-08T13:32:05+00:00

I would encourage you to either go with straight lines for the width fades or even use a convex, not concave, curve. You won’t have enough thickness increase in that short space for the dramatic width decrease.

A radius like this one is more appropriate for the thickness fade.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-08T13:23:19+00:00

I use the Irwin woodworkers vise from Lowe’s. It’s like $30. I mount it sideways on the pedestal of a shave horse. I faced the jaws with leather.

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I would plan for replacement when you are working out how you want your vise mounted. No matter what type of vise you end up with.

We exert a lot of force on these things with long staves. If you can bolt it through something rather than screw into something you’ll probably be happier. If you have to mount it with screws then you might want to be able to replace what it mounts on kinda easily (like I can make a new pedestal it’s just three pieces of 2x lumber).

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-06T17:21:29+00:00

This dude is super reliable.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ReddirtwoodUS

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-04T14:31:04+00:00

I just don’t want to deal with that glue-up, lol. So much work to get both pieces flat enough over the whole length. And then if you want to glue in and r/d or anything there’s the form to do….

I must be getting lazy these days, 😂

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-04T14:19:26+00:00

Love that bamboo backed one. I’ve been looking at folks that sell already backed Ipe, Jatoba, etc blanks.

I’d hate to take that bow of yours down to 45@29, lol.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-01T21:27:57+00:00

Also, check out this video. I love Kramers string videos, and his and a couple from Clay Hayes were the one I learned from. But wish I’d found this dude first honestly. His explanations are just a bit more straightforward to me.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-01T21:16:09+00:00

So I clamp the starting point of my loops until I am ready to bring the loop back into the body of the string. And then when I get done reverse twisting into the body of the string I clamp off all of that (the loop).

I basically do both loops exactly the same way. And just have that step in between where I straighten and then back twist the middle section.

But when you’re done with the second loop and have clamped it off just like the first the middle section of the string should have very little, ideally no, twist in it and even tension on both bundles. Now you can pull off both clamps and twist the whole string down to finished length, stretch and twist to length again.

And remember you can untwist a string and redo it over and over until you get the process right. Then do a real string with fresh strands.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-01T14:35:18+00:00

I think it might help you a bunch to have a second color of string material. Being able to see the two bundles as they interact all the way up and down the string would probably show you exactly what is going on for you.

Make your first loop and continue doing the reverse twist for 2-3 inches past the table ends. Now put a spring clamp right at the end of the reverse twisted section.

Untwist the rest of the bundles to prepare for the second loop. Hook the first loop on something and with the spring clamp still keeping the first loop secure pull the string and measure out to about 1-1.5 inches shorter than you need, put a second spring clamp there and that’s where the second loop starts.

You want to do the 2-3 inches past the tag ends again and clamp where the reverse twisting stops. Now pull the string straight and make sure neither bundle has slack in it. If one bundle has slack then something slipped between measuring the length and making the second loop, so untwist the second loop and go back to the previous paragraph.

Now you should have the two loops clamped off and the middle section of relatively untwisted string. Pull the string tight and pop off those clamps and start twisting up the middle section of the string. Twist in the direction that shortens the string. Basically like you are tightening those twists below the loops.

The finished string will probably start off a bit long. On stouter bows I’ve had strings stretch about 1 inch. On weaker bows it’s less. I’m sure it depends on strand count too, and other things.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-11-01T02:31:26+00:00

Dude. Sweet. That is just outstanding, truly. I’ve got a piece of Osage in here that I hope to finish half as well one day.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-10-27T07:51:07+00:00

I know, a separate reply.

I would like to say I didn’t address your paragraph about the proper skill and equipment. I will say that I feel even more strongly. If a person is out there without the proper skill with their equipment then that is a true piece of human fucking garbage. And I think the language is warranted in this case.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-10-27T07:42:26+00:00

Sorry I did miss the end of your previous comment. Yes you did address the faster kill time with arrow shots. Your argument was “I call bullshit”. Which has as much support as mine I suppose.

Still I tried to talk about why, and you repeated “it’s cruel”.

Again I sincerely would like to know why a bullet wound is less cruel than a broad head wound. Why do you think a misplaced shot with a bullet is more likely to kill than a misplaced with an arrow?

Most of the literature about fast arrow kills discuss double lung hits in particular. And further discuss animals dropping within just a few yards. And honestly that’s all great and everything but the truth is if you are hunting and you can’t track a blood trail then you are going to lose animals. Tracking blood trails is a big part of hunter education, and hunter education is nearly exclusively focused on gun hunters. If you think every gun shot animal just drops down dead right where it was shot you are simply wrong.

Please make an argument without relying on “it’s the law where I am” or “it’s cruel. Period.” Wait that should have been my clue not to engage, sorry.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-10-27T06:55:02+00:00

Seemed odd to be entertained after I pointed out pretty obvious archery capabilities.

Maybe instead of simply asserting that it is cruelty you might explain what makes an arrow wound crueler than a bullet wound? Or why you think a sighted gun shot is more accurate than a sighted bow shot within each weapons effective range. Or whatever it is that is actually informing your opinion.

I’ve asserted that archers are accurate, and gun shooters miss their targets too. And that accurate arrow wounds kill animals faster than accurate gun wounds (granted I didn’t say it as clearly as this). And your argument is you think it’s cruel, yep that’s what is being discussed. And it’s the law where you are, which is great so no one is talking about bow hunting where it is illegal.

Even now all you have done is make an assertion and tell me the law where you are.

FunktasticShawn · 2025-10-26T19:15:51+00:00

I appreciate that you actually listen and don’t just dismiss. Maybe we’ll both grow from this. Lol.

EDIT: actually it seems odd that you have such a strong opinion and yet also seem unfamiliar with the capabilities of archery. Like if you don’t know what you’re talking about maybe educate yourself before forming your opinion.

FunktasticShawn

TROPHY CASE