Osage Self Bow: Here are the finished stats: 61" tip to tip, 59" ntn, 42# @ 25", 4" handle, 1 1/2" fades. Width is 1 3'8" at fades, 1 1/4" at mid-limb, 1/2" at tips Plains or NA style Flat bow w-character (not meant to be a replica). Has a sort of natural crown ridge down most of the back.
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Back before the deer season (Early Sept here in NC) you may, or may not remember me posting the pic below and a couple others along with a story about my starting on my first Osage self bow (under the cautionary eye of my Mentor, Mike Brooks
). Ever since then I have been "threatening" to get back on it after the season. Well the season ended 1 Jan - dad-burn, I'm slow
. Finally, both Mike and I had time to get together yesterday (Presidents Day), and I flat made some yellow shavings fly - .
Recap Picture (first day, probably in Aug.):
I was really pleased with how much I retained from that first session, and using my own old Draw Knife I (we) could even see some improvement in confidence in "Attack Mode". However my memory didn't improve any so I forgot my camera. I brought the stave home last night so I could record the progress after the (much postponed) second day. I had only got down to the "Back", on one end before. Yesterday I took it all the way to the other end - only to discover right at the end that there was some kind of half ring or camoflage transition that had hoodwinked us. So I started working back - had to go almost back to the original starting point - but what fun, and how well it went -
and how much more I learned. On top of that we got a better looking back and it found it has streaks of almost a redish color in it. After that, Mike helped me lay out a would be bow outline - (similar to a bow of his that I had shot and liked, and that the stave looked like it might consent to - ). I proceeded to take the sides close to the outline and we split off the extra, under part of the stave. Here are a couple pics of how it looks now - I'm a pretty happy camper. We will have a little amount of character in both limbs but we will also have some heat bending to do, coming up soon. I am shooting for 58-60" and 40-45# @ 26"