Osage may be king, and Yew Queen, but Plum deserves a title as well.
After years of wanting to try this wood, I finally got my hands on a nice, fairly straight sapling about 2" in diameter. Before I set to work I reread Baker's description and recommendations for working it and decided to rough out a bow right away.
As for thickness and width I kinda just went with my gut keeping it as wide as possible (a little less than 1.5") out to mid limbs, then tapered down to a little less than 3/8" at the tips.
Once she was roughed out I weighed her, and clamped her down to avoid warping. I let her dry for about 2 weeks (Baker says a roughed out bow should dry in about 10 days).
I then checked the weight, waited another week and checked the weight again. It had not changed, so I set about tillering. I must have gotten lucky cause it took very little removal to get it braced and drawing close to 27" at about 55 pounds. However...
I had cut temporary nocks and as I was pulling on her, the string loop forced one end to "de-laminate" on a growth ring about 6" down the bow from the tip. So I glued it up with CA, wrapped it with sinew and put overlays on. The handle wood also popped off, so I glued that up and wrapped it with sinew as well. Both fixes appear to have worked cause I've been shooting the bow for days and have had no issues.
Man does it shoot comfortably, fast, and quiet. The bow took absolutely no set at all... astounding.
67" ntn
rosewood tip overlays (thanks to Greenriver)
hemp handle wrap
flemish twist string
54# @ 27"
