Am I in over my head? PIC HEAVY ***progress update ***

[crumrw]

Heck yea go for it. You ought to see the wood I use.

Lol, Well if you're from Whitehouse, TX this came from pretty close to you!

[Eric Krewson]

Wood is 7 times stronger in thickness than in width, I make mine with a slightly rounded belly and can get just about any poundage with a 1 1/4" wide bow. Avoiding as many anomaly's in your layout should be your primary concern. I have never made an osage bow 1 1/2" wide, I have made about 150 of them 1 1/4" wide.

With 1 1/2" wide your limbs are going to be very thin.

[crumrw]

Wood is 7 times stronger in thickness than in width, I make mine with a slightly rounded belly and can get just about any poundage with a 1 1/4" wide bow. Avoiding as many anomaly's in your layout should be your primary concern. I have never made an osage bow 1 1/2" wide, I have made about 150 of them 1 1/4" wide.

With 1 1/2" wide your limbs are going to be very thin.

Good to know. 1-1/2” was my safe width, and I’ll plan to reassess once it’s to that point. I’ve got one limb down to 1-1/2”, and because of a few edge knots I tried to remove I’m down to 1-1/4” in a couple places. I’ll probably end up at about 1-1/4” just by the way this thing is starting to lay out.

[crumrw]

Some updated pics. What do y’all see?

[crumrw]

More progress…belly side pics

[ssrhythm]

Keep on keeping on brother.  Sometimes you pick the stave; sometimes the stave picks you.  That stave picked you.  Don't question it, just proceed the best you can and make a bow out of it.  Looks great so far.

[Eric Krewson]

Perfect layout!

[Digital Caveman]

Tell us about the knife, you have been knapping a while?

[JW_Halverson]

LOL! What is it about guys in Texas using the orneriest, nastiest staves of osage? This looks like something out of George Stoneberg's private stash!

Crumrw, George moved on to other passions several years ago, but he is a very talented bowyer that took a singularly perverse joy in bizarre pieces of character staves of osage. We all gave him good-natured ribbing about helping the poor guy out with a good stave out of charity, but the truth was he was always giving away his best staves to new bowyers and kept the marginal stuff for himself. It looks like you are starting down George's road with this stick. There are worse roads you could have picked.

Good luck and keep posting progress pics as you go. I know I am invested in seeing how this one comes out, brother.

[crumrw]

Thanks everyone! I feel inspired to keep going in this one now, regardless of the outcome.

I’ve been knapping for probably somewhere in the 15 year range, though I gave it up not long after I stopped working with George (2012ish) due to life and stuff. Most of the stuff I knapped went to my dad, as he was so fascinated with it. Unfortunately, lost my pops last year around this time, and in the process of organizing his things I found all my knives and arrowheads I had made him. Literally, a chronological evolution of my growth through the skill set. That discovery is actually what reinvigorated my interest in primitive archery and this journey to hunt with hand made tools!

The knife blade is raw Georgetown chert collected in Hamilton TX. The handle is Osage from the same cutting as the bow. I’ll post more pics if y’all are interested.

[crumrw]

Well here’s where we currently sit. I’ve gotten through a few issues, and others have arisen.

I’ve roughed out the bow, cut the bow to length, and heat bent the propeller twist out  and also aligned the tips. I’m feeling pretty good about how this is laying out now. One point of concern for me is that in the right light I noticed the remnants of two cracks that I had to layout one of the bow tips between are still slightly visible. I knew the checking cracks were there, but thought they had been completely removed. One of them didn’t go all the way to the back, but the other does and looks like it’s headed to a small pin knot. Is this salvageable? The top is about 2” shorter than what is shown in the pics, so the cracks are about 2-4” from the tip. Secondly, one limb is slightly reflexed while the other is straight. Is this going to cause any issues with tillering? Should I add reflex to the straight limb. Bow is now 67” tip to tip.
 

[crumrw]

Bottom pic shows the width at the crack locations. Crack that goes to the back is on the side of the bow facing down in the picture, and the crack hits the back of the bow about an inch to the left of the knot at the bottom of the picture.

[crumrw]

   Before and after heat bending

[Hawkdancer]

Keep on trucking'!  if necessary, a dose of super glue in the cracks, a wrap of sinew or rawhide, and a bit of luck!  I am not experienced enough to give advice, but it looks pretty good to me so far!  You are ahead of me!
Hawkdancer

[Eric Krewson]

That could be a fatal frack, side checks are always bad news. If you can super glue the crack and get through the tillering process It will definitely need a wrap for a couple of inches with the center of the wrap centered where the crack meets the back.