First attempt Osage Bow

[HorseApples]

Hi all, this is my first post but I have been lurking for a while and read hundreds of threads.  This is such an incredible forum. I have already learned so much from you all, and yet I know I have a long long way to go.

This is my first attempt at a bow and I think its firewood. Critical mistakes were definitely made . But I have enjoyed the learning process. 
Anyway, I would just like to know from you all if you think I am on the right track and if this bow is salvagable. 
(Either way I have  a 54 inch stave that I already started chasing rings on and I am not discouraged.)

This was intended to be for my 7 year old boy.
 Its 37" n2n. About 1" wide, tapered to 1/2".
I was going for the gull wing style, 5 curve. Bends in the handle.

1st mistake may have been choosing to make such a short bow for my first bow...
Second mistake was not ordering a stave, but a milled 2 x 4. Not sure why anyone would mill osage orange... But this sucker bought it. Lesson learned.
So Alas, there was grain run-off...  I probably should have quit there and started on a new stave, but I guess I am hard-headed.
However I shot about 200 arrows through this, drawing it to about 18" and it was a good little shooter. I was feeling alright about it, but it was too heavy for my son and I was afraid to remove any more material for the sake of making it to thin and take set.
THEN I heat treated it to straighten out some twist and achieve the gull wing style. And its now developing cracks and you can guess where ...
 
Here are my questions.
1) Does this thing look salvageable to you?  Would sinew-backing it be worthwhile? If I were to I deflex the limbs with heat, would that help?

2) Was it a mistake in the first place to make a bow this short  for a 7 year old kid using osage? It was still too heavy for him to shoot, and the limbs were getting kind of thin

3) The tiller... .  I feel like I must have tiller dyslexia or something. Is this tiller FUBAR? I just did not know where to scrape next.
It had some twist, some crookedness, and one limb was pretty convex. So hopefully seeing it unbraced will help.

4) Any other advice, comments you all can offer will be much appreciated.  If it weren't for the obvious errors I made, did this bow show much potential to you?

[HorseApples]

Sorry though I had more pics on my work computer,
When I get home I'll have to attach images of the unbraced bow, and the cracks.

[upstatenybowyer]

Hey now, don't be too hard on yourself.  I think it's an excellent first attempt. Here's my 2 cents...

-For a first attempt I would have gone for a much simpler design. A gullwing 5 curve is very hard bow to make.
-I would have started with a nice straight stave from a sapling of an easy wood to start with like hickory or maple.
-For the length I would have determined the draw length, the doubled that for the length of the bow.
-I think it's salvageable if there are no splinters lifting on the back of the bow
--maybe back it with rawhide and get that right limb bending more especially if it's still overweight

Welcome to PA! You're definitely on the right track. Keep posting your work and don't be afraid to ask questions!

[osage outlaw]

Do you have a braced and unbraced picture?   Without knowing what it looks like besides your full draw picture I think it's bending to much near the fades.  Your mid and outer limbs look stiff.

[HorseApples]

Thank you both! 

Here are the unbraced pictures, as well as a close-up of the cracks
Cracks are near the fades which you probably could have predicted... And the cracks where you see the superglue are also where there is grain run-off.
These unbraced pictures are from after I heat treated it and the previous pictures showed on the tillering stick are from before that. I have been afraid to draw it after I noticed the cracks after the heat bending.

I will remove some material from the outer 2/3s of each limb and put her back on the tillering stick.

Please let me know if you have any other insights after seeing these pics:

[bjrogg]

     Horseapples, that's not so bad for a first bow. Many never make it at all. Looking at your full draw on the tree. To me it looks like your left limb is bending a quite a bit right out of the fade. Then it's a little stiff after that. The right limb I like out of the fade but then it's stiff till about mid limb where it almost looks like a hinge could be starting. Like Osage Outlaw said it's hard for us to know with out a unbraced picture and the one you gave us has been reshaped since that full draw picture. If it was straight with no natural reflex or reflex kinks I would go with my tillering thoughts. I would stay away from left fade and start scraping some to get the rest of the limb bending. The right limb I'd stay away from that spot mid limb that looks like the start of a hinge. Take some wood off the rest of the limb to take the stress off that spot.
     I'm thinking your five curves is going to make tillering much trickier for you. Remember the deflexed areas will look like they are really bending but may actually not be, while the reflexes areas will look like they aren't bending while they may be bending to much. It's really easy to remove to much wood from the reflexed areas causing a hinge. You should still be able to see some of your unbrace profile in you full draw. Sometimes using your fingers to feel the thickness running them down the limb can really help. Your eyes can easily be tricked on that unbraced profile.
     As for the cracks. I'm having a hard time seeing them on my phone. If they are just drying cracks running length ways you can probably just soak them with thin super glue. I can't see what's going on by the knot, maybe someone else can see it.
     It's easy to get bow to heavy for kids bow, especially if they haven't shot before. You need to shoot to build those muscles, you just don't use them for anything else. Even adults that don't shoot find bows heavy at first.
     Good Luck.
Bjrogg

[HorseApples]

--maybe back it with rawhide and get that right limb bending more especially if it's still overweight

Upstate, is rawhide better to use than sinew in this case? I think I read somewhere on here that rawhide does not increase the weight like sinew does.

Like Osage Outlaw said it's hard for us to know with out a unbraced picture and the one you gave us has been reshaped since that full draw picture.

I really wish I had snapped a picture of this unbraced before I heat bent it.
This weekend I scraped the limbs some and I'll get it back on the tillering tree soon and provide pics.


Thanks again for all the insight. I wish I had reached out to you all on this sooner.