I’m making my first Long Bow, I have started the Tillering process and it seems like the brace height is wrong. Currently my brace height is 4 3/4 inches. I can draw it to my desired draw length which is 30 inches, but when I watch other Bowyers place their strings on the bow it bends the limbs a lot more than mine. From string knock to string knock its 65 inches, so I made my string 62 inches. still the brace height is 4 3/4 inches.
Welcome to the forum. I can’t answer your question, but hopefully Stephen Graf will respond and give you some ideas. He is very knowledgeable on building longbows…
Is your sting B50 or B55? Check your string length after it’s been strung on the bow and drawn a few times. It may need to be twisted up considerable being the nature of those string materials.
I make selfbows and I twist my own strings. I’d say, as Ralph mentioned, check the string length It probably stretched and needs to be shortened. Are you making your own strings? What material are you using? is it endless or flemish or reverse-wrapped?
You can’t really use the formula of subtracting 3″ from the nock-to-nock bow length for selfbows like you would for a laminate bow. You just have to make the string and figure out how long it needs to be. Check out this video by Clay:
Might be good idea for experimenting to have have string plenty long and use the timber hitch method of attaching string to bottom limb. That way you can tie/untie that end for adjustment.When you find out what length works then you can make/buy new string ….
