Just finished my latest take-down. This one is Hickory-backed Osage. I got permission to cut some trees, but almost all the wood has paper-thin rings, is twisted 90 degrees in the length of a stave or is otherwise not good bow wood.
It got me thinking that I have been getting too much of that kind of wood and some of it is dry. It came to me that I could just make short boards out of some of it and back it with hickory. The elasticity of wood is almost all in compression anyway.
So, I sawed, jointed and ripped some three-foot lengths to about 9/16" thick, glued 1/8" thick hickory to what would be the backs, then glued blocks of Osage to the bellies where the handle and fades would be.
Then I turned the handle ends round in my lathe (leaving the hickory back at the surface of the round part), fitted them to the screw-together sockets I made (sixth set now) and tillered the limbs.
Of course there was lots of waiting time while the glue dried and fussy work on the lathe to get just the right slip fit that left room for a film of epoxy.
The bow is 66" nock-to-nock and 45 pounds at 28 inches. It has about an inch and a quarter of string follow when first unbraced.
It's quick and shoots like all my other round-handled bows. If I support the bow, rather than grip it, I can shoot a wide range of spines without spreading them all over.
Now for the photos.
Jim Davis
