Yesterday I was asked to make a bow for a benifit auction to help a man that was diagnosed with cancer. He was a good friend of my stepsons before my stepson passed so there was no way I was gonna refuse. I was asked by a couple of members in the open bow trade to keep my progress posted so I started this thread for it. Bow needs to be done by april 30th. I chased a ring on an osage stave yesterday and roughed out a bow only to find a couple of checks that were hidden. It will still make a nice bow but I decided to reject it for this project. Today I dug deeper into my stash and pulled out this belly split I had been saving for a special occasion. It's 80in long by 5 1/2in wide by 5 1/2 deep.
![](http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u437/stevenbennett2/auction%20bow/IMG_20160306_132905238.jpg)
I went ahead and took another belly split off and then split the top half to give me three staves to choose from.
![](http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u437/stevenbennett2/auction%20bow/IMG_20160306_134049208.jpg)
I then chose the best looking one and chased a ring. It had a little damage in one spot left by a wedge when it was split the first time. But it all came out with only one ring removed.
![](http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u437/stevenbennett2/auction%20bow/IMG_20160306_133822762.jpg)
![](http://i1067.photobucket.com/albums/u437/stevenbennett2/auction%20bow/IMG_20160306_151911954.jpg)
I will try to get it layed out tonight so I can rough it to shape tomorrow.