Well, Made quite a bit of progress on "It" Yesterday (Sunday PM), and will get to that, with some pics, shortly.
First though. Mike hasn't had a chance to get any further with his bow with the three knot holes - will get pics when he does. However he did break out what he calls his "Painted Bow", so we could shoot it some during breaks in working on mine. Part of the reason is because this is basically the shape and type that I am shooting for with mine. Main difference is mine will be lower weight, and does have a few more character features. His bow will show what I'm after, and it is a real neat little bow. It is A 58" Osage Selfbow and is quick, and darned near dead in the hand for such a short little sweetheart. Also pretty strong, 56# at 27" (or 28", I forget), for as thin as it is (front to back). I, of course, can not pull it as far as he can and therefore had to use my thumb nuckle as my anchor point. Even at that, it shot real well for me, and with nice authority and litle to no hand shock. I was always impressed with the looks of the bow and even more so now that I've shot it some. Makes me sure how well I will like mine if it turns out as much like the "Painted" one as we think "It" will. BTW, Mike painted the center of the bow, put some NA design bands near each end of the painted area, and painted an arrow on the back in the painted area.
So here is a preview of "It" (we hope) in the form of Mikes "Painted Bow":
Mike with "Painted Bow" at Full Draw:
''Yours truly" with "PB", at my abreviated draw - what a nice shooter it is:
We did that shooting mostly while my bow was cooling off after we had dry heated it to induce some more Reflex in the one limb - to match the natural Reflex in the other limb. However, before we did that, I thinned and narrowed (taperd the tip) the other limb some. I knew I would need to do that with both limbs but not untill after the bending process on the one - just in case I needed more "room" to correct any miss-cues. After shaping the one limb a little we set up for the bending. You will notice the "High tech" "Caul" I brought along (in the form of chunks of Osage log pieces, to be cut up for knife handles, bow parts, etc.). It just happened to fill the bill perfectly. We will try to take the tip down almost to the work bench, to allow room for a little relaxing after the heat and cooling period:
Once the heat was applied (Mike demonstrating how to heat without Crisco and still not scorching the limb, as I did a little last time - LOL) the squeeze clamp was tightened down on the tip:
We couldn't have asked for better results, IMO:
After that I worked on thinning the belly (mostly scraping with draw knife and using course sandpaper) and narrowing the tip of the limb just bent, and then both limbs, to bring both tips to more similar floor tiller. Later, following more belly thinning, it was time to start tree tillering with the long string and then plenty of belly thinning, exercising limbs, and checking progress. AT one point I took this pic and Mike figured we were about at 40 -to 45# - at brace height - LOL. During this work I was also rounding and shaping the edges some - for looks and safty for the wood:
More thinning, exercising, and checking followed and at the end of the afternoon both Mike and I were feeling I'd had a good afternoon of progress. He told me he felt I had reached the point where, if I felt up to it ("at my own speed" he cautioned), I could take it home with me and continue those processes, and start shaping the handle a little. I told Mike he could count on the fact that, if I got scared or uncomfortable with any part of it, - I would STOP! I'm liking this bow too well to do something dumb and blow it (please, Lord). I took a couple pics this AM, just to show where I ended up yesterday. The pics are taken from a little above to show more of the character of the limbs, I hope. I thought the first one might have a little to much clutter in the background for easy eyeballin', so I took the second on my wife's dinning room table (before she got up - LOL):
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Bernie - "Hunters Are People Too" (my web site Premise)
