OS time filler

[Don Case]

While I'm waiting for my decent OS staves to season I spotted this slab that I had cut off a stave. It's 48" NTN braced, 1 1/2" wide and 1/2" thick at it's thickest. I epoxied a riser on and steamed some recurves in. It had a thin spot on each limb that  hinged a bit so I epoxied a 1/8" patch on each side. Actually 2 patches on one side, I screwed up a bit . It threatened to be quite light but as it bent  the weight kept climbing. The picture is only drawn to 24". I was trying to manipulate the camera timer and the tree and that's what I got. I have pulled it to 38# at 27". I don't know if it would take much of that. The bark is flaking like crazy but no chrysals so far. I'll probably spot some tillering faults as soon as I post this. What do you think? I don't know what I'll do with it but it sure beats watching staves dry.

[Badger]

  Thats almost identical to my 48 OS bow, mine was 52#@28". I shot it for a few years and gave it to a guy who told me a couple years after he had it it finaly blew. He is about 6"5" tall so I suspect he may have overdrawn it.

[echatham]

do the arrows show you which way to pull the string? 

[Don Case]

They are from a previous picture. I'm going to get some blackboard material for my next backboard. I didn't notice them til I posted and I was wondering how long it would take to get a comment

[wood_bandit 99]

do the arrows show you which way to pull the string? 

Lol

[BowSlayer]

surley you put the arrows the other way on a bow? lol looks nice like the recurves.

[Dan K]

I'd do a little fine tuning, make a few arrows and go shoot some rabbits until it blows!  Your staves should be dry by then

[Don Case]

Rabbits have just arrived here in the last couple of years. When I was a kid and wanted rabbits to trap/hunt there were none. Now that I have a garden they arrive. There is still not many, maybe see one a week. Little cottontails, probably couldn't hit one with a .22 let alone a bow. It would keep me busy replacing lost arrows.

[bow101]

Nice bend Don.  That piece had no pith left in it..?  No lack of OS around thats for sure, but its tough to find big stuff like around 2-3" Diameter.

[Don Case]

It was from a 2" or so stave that had the pith way off center. I just bandsawed this off to expose pith for drying. I used a little caution so this wound up with very little pith and I sawed that off evening it up. There's lots of 2"-2 1/2" around here but most of it is less than 5' long. I've made 3 or 4 sets of billets. I can get two billets out of a 40" piece so there is no shortage. I just have to learn how to splice. For some reason I would rather not use billets but there is no logic to it.

[Zion]

Very nice!

[dbb]

Thats not a bad "time filler",i really like the shape of that one!

[Accipiter]

48" stave, went for the stiff handle anyways. Damn, way to pull that off!

[Don Case]

I'm waiting to see if the handle pops off. I couldn't do it without some kind of add-on handle. It was only 1/2" thick in the handle area.

[bow101]

It was from a 2" or so stave that had the pith way off center. I just bandsawed this off to expose pith for drying. I used a little caution so this wound up with very little pith and I sawed that off evening it up. There's lots of 2"-2 1/2" around here but most of it is less than 5' long. I've made 3 or 4 sets of billets. I can get two billets out of a 40" piece so there is no shortage. I just have to learn how to splice. For some reason I would rather not use billets but there is no logic to it.

Splicing is one way to go.  Maybe try a 2 piece, if you can get a copy of a PA magazine from this year there are 2 build-a-longs in it making a 2 piece using the fiberglass method.