Thanks for the kind words from all of you. I consider you guys to be veterans, and value your opinions a great deal. I was a little apprehensive about joining in on the swap, only having 3 bows under my belt at the time. In retrospect, the failures I had in trying to complete the bow for this swap each taught me a lesson or two, so in a way, I'm glad they happened. It just would have been nice if they happened before they were 95% complete. But I guess the effort put in previous to the cracks and explosions will help etch those lessons into the old noodle
Which I guess is a part of what this whole swap is about. With each of the
three previous attempts ( I said 2 earlier, but I forgot about the first light weight attempt), I got to experiment with different finishing details, different tiller shapes, and different woods. Now hopefully I can replicate this one with my remaining piece of osage and end up with another option for hunting this fall.
Gordon, I forgot to thank you for the "how-to" on the Strunk handle wrap. I modified it a bit, but what you gave me helped a lot!