Thanks guys. Dbb.....I feel the same way, I love the sexy R/D hybrid shape of this caul and it's all I plan to use anymore. It's such an efficient design and from what I've studied about it is that it utilizes the largest percentage of stored energy in the limbs over any other bow design and that's why they are so popular right now. Didn't take guys long to figure out how much sting it adds to your string, or zip in your tip, and puts some sizzle in your fizizzle.
Lee- This bow was going to be an osage selfbow originally all 1 single piece from a single stave, but there were a couple spots on the back after chasing the ring that had me concerned. I didn't feel comfortable with those areas so I decided to back it with boo.
The problem is that I sell or have sold all my good osage and tend to keep the lesser goods for my own use. It's more of a chore to make bows out of, but I think it's made me better because I'm always working with challenging wood.
All I had to do was flatten the back on the belt sander, then flatten the boo to the thickness I want and glued it up with Urac. What kind of glue were you using when you had the failure? If it was Urac, it needs at least 80 degrees temps in order to set up good and it has some really great gap filling properties that will help make up for tiny mistakes that we make. The two surfaces don't have to be perfect to get a good glue joint, just use plenty of Urac, get a good solid clamp up and the glue will take care of the rest.
Thanks Hrothgar. Like I said before I sold all my good osage and keep the lesser staves for my own bow making, but that's not a problem normally because I can always go out and cut more. At this particular time it was a problem because even though I had some better staves on hand, they aren't seasoned yet and didn't have time to wait on them. The TG bow swap bows are supposed to be shipped out by the second week in July, so even though I'm not rushed or anything, I still didn't have time to get a fresh piece of osage dry in time to meet the deadline.
Now that this one is off the caul I can start working toward my next project which will involve the use of Ipe.
I'm getting excited just thinking about the screamer that will be coming next, I've got lots of cool ideas for the next one.
