Great work overall, superbe tiller 
How do you make that grain pop out so clear on that osage? heat gun?
cheers
This one has a mild heat treatment that made it pop a little more than usual. It really depends on the tree too. Some have really cool looking ring separation, and some are a little harder to see.
Beautiful work as always! I’m wondering if you can tell us more about your design process. It’s clear that you’ve nailed down a beautiful and effective design that you can produce successfully across multiple wood species. I’m curious how you treat each wood/bow differently to get low set and good draw weights. The bows look pretty consistent dimensionally. I think you’re doing something very right!
I spent about 6-7 years fine-tuning something that had my own style and would work well with many wood species. Once I got it dialed in, I've rarely strayed from it over the last 2-3 years or so and it's never let me down!
I use the same design for almost every bow, unless there's some character that changes things. The only thing I really adjust for each species is the length, and slight adjustments in width. The modified pyramid taper of the limbs remains the same but the ratios can vary like 1/8" in both width and thickness tapers between different species.
26" Draw : Whitewood 64-66" - Osage 62-64"
27-28" Draw : Whitewood 66" - Osage 64-66"
29" Draw : Whitewood 68" - Osage 66-68"
30" Draw : Whitewood 70" - Osage 68"
Whitewoods : 2" wide at fades, no matter the species - 1.5" mid limb - 1/2" nocks
Osage : 1.5" wide at fades - 1.25" mid limb - 3/8" to 1/2" nocks
Always stiff-handled with a 4" handle section and 2" fade-outs for customer work and for my main hunting bows.
These are pretty close approximates but I do a lot of eyeballing after a blank is roughed out and during tillering to make sure everything has clean, fluid lines. I especially like long flowing lines in the handles and fades. No sharp angles. Lots of time spent holding it up into the light and running my fingers over it like a micrometer.
I try to make the outer 1/3's as light as I can go for a selfbow with double-cut nocks. They usually finish pretty narrow, and pretty thin. I just make sure I don't remove so much from the outers that they bend. I prefer the outer 1/3 to be remain somewhat stiff so they don't get whip-like. I'm always surprised how thin I can make them and still not get any bend, and that's really what brings the performance up in my opinion!
Anyway, I feel like it's a pretty basic design that meshes together many of the favorable characteristics I've read in the bow building books. I just put my own personal style on designs that have been tried-and-true for a long time! Hope this helps!
