Osage Quandry

[gstoneberg]

I worked a stave the other day I was going to use in a trade.  It is a belly sister stave.



I got the back prepared and when I cut it to length it looked to be a nice stave, a little thin on one side, but that side had good character.



A very odd thing happened though.  As I worked the belly I discovered lateral wind shear cracks about a half inch down from the back.  I tried to take pictures of them but the silly camera refused to focus on the cracks.  There were 3, 2 on the same ring and 1 a ring higher about 2' from that thick end of the stave.  I tried thinning the stave hoping they'd run out but had no luck.  I finally grabbed the draw knife and worked into the first crack and popped the belly off at that point.  Good thing too, as one of the 3 cracks was nearly all the way across the width of the wood.  Now I'm left with this very thin stave and I'm not sure what to do with it.  Sadly, it is thinnest at the center/handle location where it is just under a half inch thick.  It thickens a little as it gets to both tips, 9/16" at the narrow end and 5/8" at the other.  Also, because the ring popped off so clean, the bottom of the bow is concave, or lowed in the center than on the edges.  Here's how it looks:



I'm not sure what to do with this now.  It is pretty long, probably 72" from end to end (though this near end is so shredded that some length would have to be removed) and it is already bending pretty good.  I first thought of a bend through the handle bow, but the handle is so thin that I'm afraid it would have to stay full width which is much wider than I prefer to shoot.  I'm in a quandry.   Is it possible to grind the belly flat enough on a stave like this to glue on a full length belly laminataion?  I've never done one of those.

George

[ErictheViking]

I'm not knowledgable enough to give an answer on osage, but how wide IS it at the handle? someone may have an answer knowing how wide.  hope you can make it work George.

[gstoneberg]

I didn't measure, but I'd guess it is just under 2".  In the middle picture the bow is clamped at the "handle".

George

[Pat B]

Yes George, you can grind the belly and add a belly lam. I did it on an osage static recurve I built too soon after cutting and it fretted and took on excessive set. I ground the belly down below the frets and added an osage lam to each limb. The lams were about 1/8" thick and tapered to nothing. I used urac, glued it into a little reflex then retillered. Brought the weight up from 45#@26" to 56#@26" and improved the cast noticably.

[gstoneberg]

OK thanks, I think that's what I'll do.  I believe the outer limbs are thick enough to handle the weight but the handle section and inner limbs could really benefit from a belly lam.  I've got a 40" length of 2"x .75" ipe I can use. There's enough length in the stave to move the handle towards the wider end so I can  stop the belly lam in that character section.  The full thickness of the ipe in the center will make a handle and I can feather it to nothing at the ends.  Thanks a lot.

George

[Timo]

George, how wide are the limbs? If you have the width, then 1/2" is enough to get you a hunting weight bow without a lam,just cut your length down a bit.

I have seen those wind checks in bigger osage. Kinda disappointing to have them show their ugly heads in a piece that you thought was destined to make a dandy.

[gstoneberg]

About 2/3 of the stave is about 2" wide.  The other third is quite thin, around 1".  That narrow part has the character.    I'm worried that, with the handle area being the thinnest,  I won't be able to narrow the handle enough to make it comfortable to shoot.  That's why Pat's suggestion is so attractive.  I can build up the handle area with a belly lamination and then thin the handle for a nice grip.

They seem to be rampant down here in Texas.  It must be the almost constant wind.  We had steady wind of 30mph with gusts to 47 this afternoon.  Last weekend we replaced 7 posts in the privacy fence.  I'm worried we'll lose more tonight.  Anyway, I agree that it's worst in the larger/older trees.  I had a big tree milled into some boards this past summer.  I just pulled down that wood to cut it into stave widths and every board has wind cracks at one end.  Good grief.

George

[crooketarrow]

   You could add a lam but if you think the limbs are thick enough I just add a handle section. That will be up to you.