Immensely satisfied, I can finally say I've finished my first osage bow! It's taken a couple tries, and it was probably WAY more work than it needed to be, but it's finished, and the recipient is happy, and therefore so am I!
I started with lumber from my relatives' farm in Indiana. I harvested a bunch of the stuff last year that I still hadn't been able to use yet, and there was a stave with a nice natural reflex to it, so I picked that one.
Chased a single growth ring, working around some fairly minimal pins scattered along the stave. Got it into roughly the shape I wanted...
Kept working until I could string it...
And finished it!
The tiller came out a little wonky, with a bit of hinge a few inches above the handle on the top limb, and kind of stiff past that point on top and bottom, but the problem is relatively slight and I learned a lot from the process. (Among other things, I learned how much more I know now than when I started two years ago. MAN those first couple bows I made shoot like crap compared to this one.) The bow shoots really beautifully - quiet, really minimal shock, plenty of speed, and even I (with my terrible marksmanship) managed to shoot it pretty accurately. I'm extremely jealous that Jenny gets to take it home, but that's how it goes. I've got more staves, and I'm already dreaming about the next one.
Specs:
osage flatbow design
59" n2n, 1.75" at the fades tapering to <.5" tips
~48# @27"
black leather wrapping on the grip
finished with 3 coatings of tung oil, nothing else.
