A proper string alignement is essential for any bow.

Despite it’s importance the string alignement is not the first thing you pay attention when tackling a stave and roughing out the front profile of a selfbow. The first thing you pay attention when roughing out a bow and establish the front profile is the grain – when marking the front profile and width taper you normally just follow the highest point of the back which will be the centerline of your front profile. Doing so you will in most cases end up with a crooked bow blank on which the string tracks suboptimal in the grip.

You will occur the following scenarios:

A)  your string favors the wrong (opposite arrowpass) side of the bow

B)  your string is off too far on the right (arrowpasss) side the bow

C) your string is 100% centered on the handle of your bow

D) your string tracks 5-10mm towards the right (arrowpass) side of the bow

D) is perfect while A)-C) will need corrective measures:

In case of A): flip the bow or bend it in the grip until the string tracks perfect

In case of B): bend it in the grip until the string tracks perfect

In case of C): z-shape the handle or bend it in the griup until the string tracks perfect

How to bend-correct in the grip?

This is very easy:

Put your bow in a vise and establish a 3-point bend by positioning 3 little blocks of wood. Smear a little oil on the handle to improve heat transfer and carefully heat the whole handle with the heat gun. Once the wood is hot bend the stave by closing the vise until perfect string alignement is reached – Overbend a little. Let it cool down. Repeat if neccessary. This sideways bend in the grip works best if the width of the grip is 30mm or less; the depth of  the grip doesn’t matter.

 

This is a very simple process neccessary on almost every selfbow build.

Except the rare case of a perfectly straight piece of wood you should not shortcut this simple process. If you shortcut and directly try to establish good string-alignement already when roughing out the front profile you will in most cases end up in a bow on which the back will tilt to the sides in some spots  and torque when bend.