Character Osage Bow Buildalong.

[RyanY]

I can't say I have a lot of experience with cracks like that but my guess is that the position of it on the edge of that turn is going to give you some problems if it's not taken care of. My worry if you try to remove it would be where the crack leads in the bow limb. If you pulled the crack off would it pop off the limb or continue into it?

[Dean Marlow]

After sleeping on it again I am going to to take it down on the back to the edge crack and see what we have. If it stops there and the belly crack is seperate we will try and use some thin super glue on it. Dean

[JackCrafty]

Ouch!  Cracks like that will put a damper on your day.  Hope you are able to save that limb.   

[Dean Marlow]

I went ahead and worked on the edge crack this morning and completely removed it. But my limb there is only 1-1/8" wide at that spot. It is a little above midlimb. It is going to make it a slow taper to the tips now. I am going to narrow the the bow  from the fades to 1-3/8" wide and have it taper from the fades to the tips now because of that crack. I went ahead today and narrowed the tip on the other limb and tapered it as close as I could to the the other limb and will take some more belly wood off of it getting it as close in thickness and width. I will get it  to floor tillering then we are going to have to get the heat gun and do some correcting. I do have a form but with all the wiggles in it I am going to have to figure out another way to try and get these limbs half way even.

[Dean Marlow]

Here is what I have to work with when  it is time to straighten. One limb is slightly reflexed then the stave takes a big dip right in the handle area going towards the right limb. Open to any bodies ideas on how and where to start on this thing.

[blackhawk]

If you have a nice even floor tiller that's not too crazy stiff you can use a flat workbench,or two by four as long as its close to being flat and true,and put the back of the handle down onto a 2-3" block(however much reflex you want) ,then clamp it down at each tip. If its tillered even it'll flex even when clamped down and will induce an even reflex. That's what I do with staves like that that won't fit well over a form. Sometimes you might have to put a shim in a deflexed area that needs a lil push in the right direction. I've also done this to just correct one limb so it'll match the other.  Just get it looking good before you set the heat to her. Understand? I can take a pic and post it of what I mean if need be. 

I think removing that crack was a good idea....this is one of those staves its hard to give advice to..you can take as many pics as you want,but id really need to see it and "feel" it in person to really give any advice that has any worth to it.

[Dean Marlow]

blackhawk
  Posting your picture would be great. Like I said before I would like every ones ideas on how to get this to a finished bow. Dean

[blackhawk]

Ill out one up with some more explanation after work today dean.

[Dean Marlow]

Today I removed the wood from the belly of both limbs to get them to start bending. The one limb has several dips in it which made it slow going as far as removing the wood. I put marks on top of  and the sides of the limb where it would ridge up to make sure that I didn't remove to much compared to the valleys. Also I used my caliper's up and down the limb to try to get as even wood removal that I could. I would give the limb three or four passes with the big rasp then clean it up with the scraper and run the caliper down the limb to see if I was removing to much or not enough of the belly wood. I would then take the bow and push down on the limb "Floor Tiller" and repeat the process until I got it to bending Like I wanted. Tomorrow will will try and get the limbs straightened and work on the handle

[blackhawk]

heres what I was mentioning dean on how to match the one limb a lil better and closer to the other one....I would just try to get the tip close to the same where the other tip is in the limb and leave most of the dips...I wouldn't try to correct those dips or even put too much heat to em cus they have a tendency to wanna check or crack there if you try and put to much heat to em or try to force them to move and straightening them out.

if I cant use a form this is what ill do...just a 2x4 with a chalk line snapped down it. you can even move string tracking some if its only a little ways off by using your chalk line as a guide. heres a mock setup with a stave from the side on two 2x4's to give it 3" reflex and leather placed under so as not to ding the back. you can see the left limb needs a lil "push" to match the right. this is a floor tillered blank on it.





and heres where I put a shim in it to get the left limb matched up to the right






heres a closer view of the shimed area and that limb,and notice the chalkline





and heres a view from the long ways,and you can see that the handle and both tips are aligned on center





if this doesn't help you maybe itll help someone else who sees this

[JW_Halverson]

Thanks, Blackhawk.  That refines a technique I have used in the past.

Atta boy, Dean-o.  Take your time with this stave, we are all out here cheering for you!

[soy]

Hip hip hooray!!!
Looking very nice ....what a piece of heavenly goodness you have there... or not so heavenly      

[Dean Marlow]

blackhawk thank you for the pics. I can do that and the pics are the only way to go when you are trying to explain it. I am going to work on the handle today which I normally do when I am about finished with the bow. The reason for waiting is you may have to do a little tweeking here in there for the string and a nice fit for your hands. But in this case I will have to do some heating and the less wood there is in it the better the out come. I wanted a stiff handled bow but I would probably better off with a bendy or partial bendy handled bow. I marked the center with a 4" handle and 2" fades. I am not happy where the fades ended up as they are real close to the wild curves in this stave. One side looking at the handle looks fine but the other side really has a couple of humps where the fades would be if I went with a stiff handle. I got to ask a question here. I haven't done a hole lot of bendy handle bows. Do I still narrow the handle and taper for some kind of fade or just take the wood off of the top until it starts to bend. Here is a pic of the stave floor tillered.

[PEARL DRUMS]

You are the man Dean-O. That is one of the coolest snake shapes Ive seen. It appears to be strudy to. Tillering is going to take 3 mirrors, a spotlight, an eye patch and three helpers!

[Dean Marlow]

Pearl you got that right. I am a strong believer in Eric's Gizzmo but it will not work here on this thing.