Difference in billets

[Steve Milbocker]

I just received a bow blank from Gary Davis. It is glued up out of billets and there is a big difference in the color and weight of each half. You can really feel the difference in the wood when working it, one is a much denser wood. The balance point is 2" off center if that tells you any thing. My question is how will this bow behave when tillered with such a difference between limbs?

[bcbull]

steve  if  ya need help with one of garys stave s call gary i know he will bend over backwards to help you  brock

[artcher1]

Steve, your bow should finish out just fine if you do your part. One thing I would suggest is to keep a center mark (dimensional center of the bow) as you tiller the bow out to maintain equal limb mass. The denser limb will wind up a bit narrower than the other limb. But I always get that anyways because I build my bows "as they stand in the tree" where the bottom is always a bit denser. Good luck and keep us posted...........Art

[Pappy]

I'm with Brock,just give him a call,I know he goes to a lot of trouble to match his billets and close as he can,if he felt it would cause much trouble I am sure he wouldn't have spliced
them.
   Pappy

[Steve Milbocker]

I'm with Brock,just give him a call,I know he goes to a lot of trouble to match his billets and close as he can,if he felt it would cause much trouble I am sure he wouldn't have spliced
them.
   Pappy

That's pretty much the conclusion I came to also Pappy. He builds them for success for dummies like me I think I will be staining this one though, the difference in the color of the wood is very pronounced. Any suggestions for a stain for osage? I've tried some on scrap pieces and it acts like it doesn't want to take very well.

[Pappy]

I wouldn't say that you are a dummy,but yes he dose. He will be down next week for
several days,I will ask him about it,I'm sure he will remember the one you are talking about.
   Pappy

[Pat B]

Fiebings leather dye or Rit dye in alcohol will work on osage. I believe Gary used shellac on his bows while he uses steam to do the straightening, etc. You will have to remove the shellac first before the dye will take. The color of the wood might be closer after the shellac is removed.

[Buckeye Guy]

Steve ,
You know Gary will be glad to send you a differant one if you don't like it.
As for color if you get that yellow wood in the light (after you make a bow out of it) it will all turn chocolate  anyway so don't worry about it !
                               
                                  Guy

[crooketarrow]

   Back when I built billet bows I came a cross the same thing twice. When you tiller the limbs even though the one is denser wood. It will only matter in weight. When you tiller it likely you'll end up taking more wood off the heavyer(denser) limb.Which wiil help with the balance some.It may be a little off but mine wer'nt nearly as bad as after it was tillered.
   I used leather dye to even out the color one one the other that was like that there was'nt to much difference.
   

[Steve Milbocker]

Fiebings leather dye or Rit dye in alcohol will work on osage. I believe Gary used shellac on his bows while he uses steam to do the straightening, etc. You will have to remove the shellac first before the dye will take. The color of the wood might be closer after the shellac is removed.

Pat, removing the shellac is the first step when you begin working Gary's blanks. I now have this bow floor tillered and ready to long string. The dark side is straight grained and the nice yellow side is full of burl,very pretty. It's almost like working white wood on one side then switching to osage on the other. This should be a good education for me if nothing else.

[bcbull]

steve i know for a fact gary uses shellac   but tell ya what  was me  im a guy likes the color of osage
 older it get darker prettir it gets   my suggestion i  no dye  let it age it will darken with age  guess i aint so picky i care more about how it shoots  than looks  brock

[Steve Milbocker]

"steve i know for a fact gary uses shellac   but tell ya what  was me  im a guy likes the color of osage
 older it get darker prettir it gets   my suggestion i  no dye  let it age it will darken with age  guess i aint so picky i care more about how it shoots  than looks  brock"

It's not the shellac guys, it's the wood. If the halves even came close to matching color I'd leave them. The dark side almost doesn't look like osage even though it is.

[Steve Milbocker]

Worked it quite a bit today, got my targeted weight to about 24". So far so good. Had to take a lot more off the dense limb to balance things out at 1/8 positive tiller.

[Dean Marlow]

Steve I wouldn't worry about the color difference. In a few months you won't hardly tell the difference. I made a 2 piece take down osage bow this summer. One was brilliant yellow and the other the dark brown and now you can't tell the 2 pieces apart Dean

[John K]

Any pics ?