4. Tape measure time

No manual labor today apart from sanding away the excess epoxy resin, and that with a drill and sanding disc. This was in preparation to carefully measuring the bow stave and marking it out according to the instructions on the Traditional Bowyer's Bible. I want to get this right so it is very important that i take my time and measure everything down to the millimeter.

Diagram from The TBB showing the bow dimensions that i will be following

The first thing to establish was the line down the middle of the bow. I have gathered that the easiest and best way to do this is to hang a string through the middle of the stave tips, and then carefully follow the sting with a pencil.

Apologies for the grainy picture but you get the idea

Secondly, it is necessary to mark the center line of the bow and thus establish the top limb and bottom limb. As one of the billets i used is slightly longer than the other (37 inches and 39 1/2 inches) I was wondering how to make it work, but fortunately it works just fine. In fact, once all the lines had been drawn according to the diagram above, it was clear that this stave fits the template very neatly.

Handle area with lines drawn according to diagram above

The centre is the point where the arrow will pass. The handle area (4", 1" above and 3" below centre), is almost entirely covering the splice. The bottom limb (shown pointing towards us) is thus an inch and a quarter shorter than the top limb. This is quite satisfactory, and hopefully this weekend we can begin reducing wood. Good night!