Thanks for all the compliments, I really appreciate it.
Marco, the bridges are just four little triangles of bone CA'd in place. I Googled "Backing a bow with birch bark" and got quite a few hits. One suggests boiling the bark. I tried it on a test piece and it just shrivelled up, so I wouldn't recommend that. I stripped the bark down to the thinnest layer I could and soaked it in warmish water for a half hour or so. It gets a little stretchy when it's wet. Then just glue it on and smooth it out. I wrapped mine with 1" wide sewing elastic, not very tight. Removed the elastic after 15-20 mins. Be careful removing it if you were a little sloppy with the glue. This wrapping part could be improved on because this is where I had my problems. Lifting edges and such. Mine looked very lumpy at first but flattened out as the glue set up. The camera was my friend here because it looks better in pictures than it actually is. But for first try I'll take it.
I just kerfed the tips, steam bent the curves and glued in an insert. I had to kerf them because I haven't had any luck putting tight bends in Ocean Spray.
Again thanks for all the nice remarks
Don
