A Suggestion for Reducing Wood For A Bow and Shafts.

Make sure that either the wood or file/rasp are viced or clamped down. Many vice down the wood. It feels natural to work wood on viced rasp. This feeling may be rooted in having worked wood on a large stationary rock. Limited experience however has taught me that rock tends to gum-up rapidly or lose its "edge" when abrading wood. 

I have made many shafts from cut lumber, but not many bows. For shaft, I reduce a hevy amount of wood by just carving it off with a sharp thin knife  (like a safety razor) and then taking it to a rasp, file or blade perpendicular to the wood. Your hand will get faster and more accurate at whittling down a shaft to make it ready for the rasp and file. The wonderful advantage of making your own shaft is realizing all the knock and shaft combinations and possibilities and how they behave in practice. With a store or pre cut shaft you are limited to the linear rod.