Completely new red oak elb

[adb]

Given appropriate dimensions, and the right stave, osage can easily make a 100+# selfbow.

[youngbowyer33]

OK, I have a soft spot for young bowyers. 

that sounds weird

[gstoneberg]

It does.  How bout this, I hate to hear young bowyers sound discouraged when their bow breaks?  Makes me want to share some osage.  I think I intended to write, "I have a soft spot in my heart..."  but even that sounds a little weird.  Dang, how bout we just get you a stave to play with??

George

[LEGIONNAIRE]

hahaha funny guys. The oak bow broke because the grain was of the piece on the side. Just an observation. Good luck with the osage.

[alanesq]

regarding:

Are you up to chasing a ring on an osage stave? 

If you don't get on with hand tools it is very easy to chase a growth ring with an angle grinder (with sanding attachment)
if you search for my guide (back street bowyer) on google there are instructions on how I do this along with a video clip
(I don't think I can link direct to it on this forum)

I can usually do an entire stave in under 30 mins (with hand tools I would still be struggling with my first one now ;-)

[gstoneberg]

I told youngbowyer in a PM I'd heard of someone using an angle grinder as a sander.  That must've been you.  The draw knife isn't a hard tool to learn, just tricky if you have no one to instruct you.  I would also say that the draw knife is much easier to use on osage and mulberry than the white woods I've tried it on.   I took an osage bow back to a growth ring yesterday afternoon in about 2 hours.  It would have been faster if it hadn't had so many knots.  Even so, I may try your approach anyway because it sounds so intriguing.  In his case it might work a lot better than going it alone with the draw knife.  You never know though, he might pick it right up. 

I'm trying to find the most cost effective way to send him the stave.  Osage is heavy.

George

[alanesq]

lol - yes, that will be me

I struggled for ages with a spoke shave then a draw knife but I was getting blisters and only managed to chase about 6 inch
as you say, having someone to show how to use the tools would probably have helped me a lot

out of shear desperation I tried my angle grinder and 30mins later I was finished :-)
I have only tried it on white woods and without knots though

[gstoneberg]

Alan, I really think your problem was with the wood.  I once tried to chase a ring with the draw knife to make a bow from the lower half of a big hackberry stave.  It was an exercise in futility.  The thing chattered and before long I had speed bumps on the bow's back.  Eventually I gave up and made firewood of my hackberry staves.  A clear osage stave (which is almost an oxymoron) is wonderful to work with a draw knife.  In fact, therein lies the danger.  Just like with power tools, it is real easy to take wood off too fast and go through your ring.  It's hard to argue with a 30 minute job on ring chasing though.  I call ring chasing bowyers aerobics cause it always wears me out.  At my age that's a good thing, I need all the exercise I can get.

Do you have osage over in the UK?

George

[youngbowyer]

hahaha funny guys. The oak bow broke because the grain was of the piece on the side. Just an observation. Good luck with the osage.

.   I just noticed that as well

[youngbowyer]

decided to have a go with red oak one more time. This time i think the bow will be a bit more square in cross section. So far i tapered the limbs and should get to rounding tomorrow. Probably start tillering it on wednesday.

[youngbowyer33]

Show us another picture of the grain

[youngbowyer]

This is the new red oak elb

[youngbowyer33]

from the angle it looks good, i would try to get it bending just a little bit more mid limb and towards the tips

[youngbowyer]

i will try get it bending more from mid limb to the tips ill post some pictures tonight

[youngbowyer]

Finished it today just need to give it a final sanding and put a finish on it.