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[DuBois]

Come on!!  Boil water.......Dry sinew.......Dry paint......Dry sinew

Well, I got a little on the other osage. Thought I'd do a little rawhide tip over under thing.

[PlanB]

Dubois, I know exactly what you mean. I started the finish on my trade bow, and watching that dry is about as exciting as....well watching paint dry. 

Being a nice day, I decided to get out and start prospecting. I found a clump of young elms I've been meaning to take down for awhile and I decided  to cut them while it's cold before the elm beetles were out and attracted to the odor. There's two beautiful 50 footers nearby and I don't want them getting dutch elm disease.

This clump was all tangled up with oriental bittersweet, and tough to get down -- I had to cut through every trunk and several vines to get it to fall. The 1" thick vine had grown into some of the wood higher up and ruined it. Another invasive I'm glad to get rid of!



I saw a lot of trees and shrubs of interest now that the leaves are gone in one spot: wild apple, buckthorn (invasive), a good sized honeysuckle (invasive), many 8" elms -- one fallen over, but still alive and sending up perfectly straight suckers, and a lot of multiflora rose covering the honeysuckle -- I guess you can make arrows out of that. Another invasive good to cut for archery.

A little beyond I spotted my three types of birch and took a photo in case anyone is interested; white, yellow, and black (or sweet). Typical growth habits here -- the white is dead, as most of mine are now, don't know why. The yellow is forked and twisty with low limbs. And the black is arrow straight and tall with no low limbs and thick non-papery bark. It is smooth on younger trees like this one -- up to 10 inches or so, and then breaks up an gets tougher on old trees. It is the heaviest and hardest of the birches here, and the most common. Hope it's of interest.....

[Drewster]

DuBois, I'm interested to see what you're going to do with that.  Keep us posted.

Well, it was a belly treating afternoon for me.  Spent a little quality time with da olde heat gun.  Hope that twist in one limb is greatly reduced.  We'll find out tomorrow.

Cheers all!

[Swampman]

Looks like a good day Plan b.  You gathered some nice looking elm.

Drewster, I hope that twist stays out for you.

[Ryan C]

got thickness way down on mine.

[half eye]

Hey Fellas,
      Got the osage snake out to draw length and just slightly over weight which will allow me to tweek the tiller if I need/want to.
      Here is the unbraced, braced and full draw. I really liked all the snake so did not take it all out of the side profile....just enough to get the limbs about the same. I also bent the ears back, sharp and 4" short....they are not static but also not fully working either (steam bend) and the only other adjustment was to steam the tips to move them laterally so the string was centered on the grip area.
    Here's where it's at right now.
rich

PS: I added in a "front" snake pic from before so ya dont have to go back

[PlanB]

So cool!

[jandersson]

half eye you gotta be the most productive trader in this trade!. Is that the fifth?
PlanB: Yes very much of interest! I've always mix up Alder, Aspen and Birch in the winter. I'll bet a lot of what I thought was Alder was actually Black birch.

For my bow I'm at 50#@ 12". I had to rebend it again after it lost some of the shape I steamed in already. How should I think about tillering with the left limb having a little more curve to it?
Also playing around with a plan B/C option. This is a test bow I'm gluing up. Next time I will do the epoxy instead of tbIII, I had to hustle to get it all together before the glue was setting up.

[---GUTSHOT--->]

Dubois don't know what you got going on there with those tips but I'm sure it will be cool

PlanB wow you have your work cut out for you

Drewster that hickory will be perfect when you get done with it. I've got to say you are very patient.

Janderson looking good. I don't know of anybody that has more c clamps then you.

Half eye your going to have to get you a tribe of Indians up there to help you shoot all those bows your building. Keep it up.

[PlanB]

Drewster, I'm a great admirer of your shop, tools, bench and workmanship. You must be a long time woodworker -- I'm getting dejavu back to Woodcraft catalogs and the Fine Woodworking mags of the late '70's whenever I see a photo of your bow.

jandersson, black birch is real easy to tell if you break off a small twig or leaves and smell it. It will smell like wintergreen (or birch beer -- hence that name). It is also sometimes called sweet birch because of it. Also called cherry birch because when very young the saplings have a reddish shiny bark similar to cherry saplings, and the heartwood when first split is reddish. But the odor of the twigs is a dead giveaway. Nothing else like it.

[half eye]

Mr. Andersson,
      If you look real close at your draw pic you can see the area behind the C-clamp is stiff to the left limb......( I did the famous "line on the pic" thing. I think you are so close to perfect it's scary.....so if you decide to try scraping that area make sure to only do a couple scrapes and recheck.....couple scrapes and recheck.....bet it wont take very many to bring it around.
     A little food for thought....as you allow that area to bend just a LITTLE more the right limb will round out and come forward like the right (just because of torque)

Plan B, very nice elm sir....is it Rock, Grey (American), red (slippery).....I really like the slippery myself even though the rock is supposed to be tougher.

Gutshot, Thats why I got a few friends to pawn 'em off on

As far as building a lot....retired, old, and snowed in 
rich

[half eye]

forgot the pic

[Drewster]

Dang Rich, you can crank out a bow before I can think about what to do next......look'in mighty good.

Joakim, your bow is bending nicely when drawn.  I would keep tillering.  Keep the tips even and the bend smooth.  What kind of wood you got glued up?  Your set up looks great.  I want to start doing some bows like that.

Gutshot, I got more patience than I do money ;-)

PlanB, yeah, been woodworking for a few years......since high school......and I'm 67.  I built that bench when I was about 24 years old.  I've spent a LOT of hours working at it.  It's probably one of my most valuable tools.  Would hate to be without it.  BUT, I quickly figured out that building furniture and turning things on a lathe is a LOT different than building a bow.  Building bows sure has been fun though........and a new challenge with every stave :-)

[PlanB]

Rich, I'm pretty sure it's American elm, but not totally. Heartwood isn't reddish like slippery is supposed to be, and Rock elm isn't supposed to grow this far east.

Drewster, same age then, great bench (and bow!) I was building boats at 24, and like you, bows are definitely a new skill.

[lebhuntfish]

Jandersson, I would do what Rich said then see if the unbraced profile still looks like your top picture. If it does you could ad a little deflex in that right limb, just enough to make it match the other side. Then I would flip those tips about an inch and a half  over about a 8 to 10 inch section from the tips back. Then you will have a pretty fast and stable bow. And it will have a 5 curve look to it. Just my thoughts.

Patrick