All, a short while back I posted here looking for help with making my first primitive bow. I have been trying on and off for years and have made some kindling and nothing else. Anyway I emailed Martin out of the blue asking for help in finding someone to help me and he invited me over to his place to work on a bow. He gave me almost his entire Sunday, let me use his osage billet and tools and talked me through the whole process. We started about 9:15 Sunday and by 3:30 the same day I was shooting arrows out of an osage bow I made! We were both pretty happy about the whole thing when we heard a crack from the bow...it lifted a splinter on one limb. Martin quickly chased that ring and got the bow back to shooting but of course it was no longer at the weight we had set out for. But that is okay, it is still a bow and totally heavy enough for hunting. So all in all a successful day. I have a lot of sanding and cleaning to do on the bow now but I will let it sit a while to rest. Once it is cleaned up I'll have to recheck the weight and then maybe I will look at trying to increase the weight some how but for now I am happy with what we ended up with.
Now to make one on my own. Thank you to Martin!
Paul