1" thick handle section??

[cool_98_555]

Hello everyone,

I have been looking around my shop and I found an old osage stave that I had worked down into bow dimensions.  Problem with this stave is that the thickest part (at the handle area) is only 1" thick.  Rest of the bow is around 7/8".  I think I remember this one.  I was reducing the back to a single ring and the rings on this one were very hard to see, so I ended up going through many rings to get a clean back and this is what I ended up with.  It was a grueling night in the shop for sure. Frusterated, I put it away and left it there until further notice.  Now I'm seeing this thing again and am wondering what I could do with it.  It's 66" right now and I really would like a stiff-handle bow.  Not sure if I can make it that way with this one though.  I would love to add a riser to this bow, but I don't know how I can flatten the osage down so that it's perfectly flat to accept the riser block.  I don't want any glue gaps due to unevenness.  I've tried that before but never could get it perfectly flat, and the riser popped off later.  Ended up ruining a good bow that way...don't want to do that again unless I have an absolutely for-sure method of getting that perfectly flat for the riser block.  Any ideas with all of this?  Thank you all for your help.

[SLIMBOB]

I build my handles much more meaty and robust now than I did when I first started making bows. I just measured an old one with a skinnyish handle. It is 1 " wide, 7/8" deep, and 5" long. This is a 58" Osage bow that draws 56lbs at 27 inches. Looking at it I wonder how it has held together, but 20 years and thousands of arrows. Short little 1 inch fades to boot. Don't take much Osage....

[Knoll]

If ya want deeper handle section, will likely have little trouble adding bit of a block.
When adding riser block, I get stave portion reasonably flat/square and then use sandpaper/block to do final flattening. The sanding block is my riser block.
Good luck!

[loon]

would it be possible to tiller it to have a stiff middle section and handle built up on the back, maybe with cork? would 1" deep right at the middle bend?..

[DavidV]

Honestly, an inch of osage probably isn't going to do any bending as long as it isn't too narrow. Then do what Knoll said if you need more handle to shape.

[SLIMBOB]

Stiff handle.

[SLIMBOB]

Here's a couple of pics just for clarity's sake.