1st of all, thanks for the straight forward input, PatM. I was in a rush to get back to work, so I didn't have enough time to run through what happened in the scraping process.
After reflecting on how this bow went, both PatM and Pearl hit the nail on the head as far as not exercising the bow enough while I was working on that right limb. Also, as Pearl so aptly called it, I was timid when it came to bending the limbs, since that right limb was so wonky.
In all honesty, after I got back to work and started to think about it, I did decide I would begin on a new bow. I have enough walnut and bamboo to do another trilam and I recently got a couple of 36" long 5/8" thick osage boards from 3rivers that look great and a new ripping blade for the table saw that supposedly has a minimal kerf (I have yet to use it). So, I was going to start up getting the third bow ready (since that first one with bamboo walnut and osage was going pretty well until that knot) while scraping at the current bow, but after reading Pearl's post (and agreeing 100%), I might as well just put all my effort into getting #3 up and running.
So here are some things I noticed with this bow that set me up for a challenge while I was working on it. 1st of all, I think in the future I will try this wood combination again. It has a lot of potential, but next time I will start off with a thinner core lam. I know osage (whether good ol' American osage or the Argentine osage I used) is a bit more dense than other core woods (maple, cherry, walnut, actionboo, etc). However, since it was going to be a fairly long bow, I thought using the same dimensions on the prior bow (3/16" at the fade to 1/16" at the tip taper) would suffice. I'm pretty sure I'll be starting no thicker than 1/8" next time. As I stated earlier, I shouldn't have tried to flip the ipe. As Pearl pointed out, I also did notice the reflex position of the bow was different from the last bow. In my haste to try to get the current bow ready, I did place the reflex a bit too close to the fades to my liking. I was hoping for a mid-limb (like the 1st trilam), but I thought I would proceed since the reflex wasn't in a really really bad spot. And, as previously stated in this post, the lack of exercising the limbs. I'm not sure why I got so defensive in my exercising, as I didn't have that mentality on the 1st bow, but I will differ to that limb throwing me for a loop (in addition to being so far behind in the trade has added a little bit of stress as well, making me a little more hasty than I should have been).
I'm also not going to give up on this bow. If worse comes to worse, I can remove the ipe completely, thin the osage, put on a new belly, and maybe see what happens if I were to place it on the form with putting the reflex in midlimb. I actually think what is most likely to happen is this: I can shorten the tips at some point (I don't know if now would be as good of time with that hinge in the right limb) which would get the reflex closer to being in the middle of the limb and add some weight to the bow (I'd most likely take it down to 63" ttt). It could still make a nice 40-50# @ 27-28" bow at those dimensions. The more I think about it, the more I think that is what I'll end up doing (if for no other reason than to see what happens!).
And maybe someday I'll be able to get out and meet some experienced bowyer for a lesson or two. I know I've done a ton of reading, but there's something about talking through it in person that just can't be replaced. I just need to convince the wife there's a reason to get to wherever there at!
Finally, thank you all for being so helpful! I'm not going to toss in the towel on this one. And even though I feel extremely bad about how late this is going, on this next bow I will not rush it when I do get a chance to do work on it. I think, though, I will start a new thread (as suggested by Jeff) and I'll post the final product before shipping it out here so that there will at least be closure to this otherwise very successful trade.
