Black locust d bow help?

[DLH]

I have a locust stave that was going to be fence post that I found in an old barn and they were practically free. It is 1.5 in wide and 66 in long I tapered the last 11 in to 1/2 in tips. I have most of the ring chased just have to clean up around some pin knots first I also want to narrow it to 1 3/8 in. Do you guys think 1 3/8 in. is a good starting point to hit 50# @28? Here is what it looks like.



Two of the pin knots concern me because they are on the very edge and one of them I didn't see until the last few rings (I'm guessing I over looked it) My question is this should I try to get the pin knots out when I narrow it to 1 3/8 in? One of them is where I start my taper to the tips. Here is the first one.



This is a side view of the same knot.



Here is the other knot this is the one I overlooked.



Whats the chances of it following the grain around knots like this when I narrow it?



This may be put up and resumed at a later date because when I get my rasps back I want to work on a locust bow I have had going for a couple months to build my skill set this is just in the meantime. Any advice is more than welcome.

[TRACY]

Hey Daniel! Looks like a nice piece of wood there. Your width is definitely on the slim side but doable. If your worried about the knots, you can always back it with rawhide or sinew to insure it from issues. I think it is possible to finish this stave into an unbacked bow if that is what you're after. That last knot on the very edge looks like it could be removed and still have enough width. Just a few ideas. Take care and good luck Daniel.


Tracy

[Joec123able]

Once you get the ring chased the knots should be ok but don't just rasp straight through them when you narrow and have half a knot on the edge of your limb that would be a for sure failure

[George Tsoukalas]

DLH, should be just fine. I like bringing the knots to the same ring as the rest of the stave. Leave the big knots a little wider and tiller them to knot bend as much as the rest of the limb. Pin knots should be the same ring too and leave a little wood if you can but that's not essential. Jawge

[BowEd]

I think it looks like you got some good rings there.You should be OK.You got the length going for ya too.

[DLH]

The only reason I wanted to narrow it was to try and get the pin knots on the edge out but I may leave it at 1.5 in. Once I get it down to one ring around the pin knots I will report back. Also will the limbs be really thin at 1.5 in wide the reason I ask is all the locust d bows I found online are around 1.25in wide?

[Joec123able]

1.5 inch wide should be fine

[DLH]

This is where I'm at so far a couple of the knots worry me the one on the edge (8th) and the one that has been butchered (2nd picture). I still think I need to take some more of the ring off closer to most of the knots. There are 11 pin knots total and that worries me. I have chased a ring around a knot prior to this and it was bigger is there any difference in the way you handle a big knot vs a pin knot? How does it look so far any critique and advice is welcome. Also are my pictures too big what do most of you re size yours to?

Thanks,

Daniel

[osage outlaw]

Looks like you worked around those pin knots pretty good.  You might want to lightly sand them.

[TRACY]

Looking real good Daniel! The one on the very edge either needs removed or super glued. I don't know if you can sacrifice any width at that knot, but it would concern me.

What's the overall stave looking like?

As for pics, I either compress for webpage or custom size 640 x 480. Hope that helps and look forward to a finished bow pics.


Tracy

[dbb]

Cant give advice on the bow,but the easiest way to handle pics is to use a service like photobucket  or picasa or such.
 There are a ton of them out there.
Just remember that as soon as you move a pic in those "albums" you break the link to where you posted it.
I solve this by put all pics i post in one album and never touch it.

[DLH]

Tracy

I'm at 1 7/16" on the width right now I can get a picture of the whole stave this after noon. The one on the edge was worrying me the most. I will sand them and repost pictures. I want to post some pictures showing the twist too see if it will need to be addressed later.

[Ozzy]

Looks like your on the right track

[blackhawk]

I think your OK Dan...if the one on the edge concerns you then apply some sinew along the edge there alongside that knot...so along the side of the bow where that knot is close to the edge..I have done it before with knots on the edge where I had no choice because the way the stave split and some of the grain that flows around a knot got a lil thin and slightly violated so I ran sinew along the side to what I call "bridging the gap" to fill up the missing part of the grain...then after tillering I put a sinew wrap around it at each end of the "patch" along the side to reinsure after knowing it survived tillering and some shooting....make sense?

Or if you want even more insurance you can just rawhide back the whole bow wrapping the rawhide down around the sides some ...but I'd do what I mentioned first and go unbacked,but that's just me and my prejudice towards having a selfbow

[Mo_coon-catcher]

From the little experience I have with black locust it really boosts the performance with a good heat treating. It might not help with the knots, but it will help keep the bow from fretting and makes it shoot much faster. With a heavy heat treating it made a little 40 lbs @ 18" locust bow shoot as hard as my fiber glass recurve that draws 45lbs @ 28". I didn't speed test this but I was shooting the same arrows into a target and the arrows shot from the locust bow got there quicker and penetrated deeper. If you decide to back the bow with something like the sinew or rawhide like mentioned and want to heat treat then I would heat treat first then back it or the glue could let go.