Re: Buildalong character recurve >>>session 1 - 6 added, finished page 3

[simson]

Osage is rare and expensive here, so nothing to be wasted. I'll take any stick, no matter how twisted. By now I am very well set up for aligning sticks. A number of home-made tools complement clamps and a hot air gun. Two homemade dampers with different attachments allow damping either an arm or just part of it. The alignment itself is done under controlled conditions, i.e. first we analyze how much movement in which direction is necessary. The process itself should then deliver exactly this desired result.


Several guys asked me to explain how I do string alignment, heat corrections, recurve bending and so on.
Here I will show some of my methods on a very special stave. This specimen is very fine ringed (some about 1 mm) and it was already hard work getting the ring chased. And this stick has a lot of imperfections (at least nobody wanted to buy that stave, hahaha).

But, in fact, it is a character stave, it's osage (best bow wood ever) -- so let's make a nice character recurve ...

What I did so far:
- the final ring is chased
- the handle section is determined, using a grain wiggle from a dead branch for arrow pass  (being a righty this wiggle also determines upper and lower limb)
- the stave is cut to length, design will be asymmetric
- the handle is roughly worked out, very little wood here and at the fades (dangerous narrow)
- width and depth of the limbs are roughly worked out, this shows much better the imperfections of this stave
- sides and belly are cleaned with the scraper for a better view
- the fades are already symmetrical worked out (front profile), the wiggle caused the serious fragile looking front



let’s do the analysis:

1. There is a twist in/near the handle of about 45°. little chance to bring that out completely by heating (dry heat) or steaming. For better comfort I will build up the handle with cork or leather

2. Upper limb leaves the handle reflexed, lower limb deflexed, both with an opposing twist. I will try to steam handle and fade section to equalize deflex and reflex and hopefully get out some of the twist.

3. Both limbs are more or less a saber (front profile), the lower more and with a definite kink.
Steaming the limb and flexing on a caul and induce a continuous and symmetrical (balanced) reflex or flip (side view).

4. The stave has an uneven, inhomogeneous crown, I will react on the belly side. Where’s a mountain on the back, there has to be a valley on the belly. In other words an even thickness.

5. At arrow pass (I’m a righty) is a torn out grain / splinter, coming from splitting around the formerly branch. I can not rasp down more, it’s already extreme thin (narrow) there. So the only thing which came in my mind was to glue on a piece of horn or bone as arrow pass to hide that failure and get a pleasing surface. Maybe I just try to glue that thing with super glue or epoxi.

6. The stave has a twist of about 80° from tip to tip.
Maybe a good amount of corrections could already be done with No.3.
If not, I will do additional sessions with the heatgun.

7. The stave has, as already said, very fine rings. Those fine ringed specimen get a really great look when fumed.
I will do a fuming session of about a week or so.



Hard to show all the wonky up and downs, sideway bends and so on in pics, in reality it looks much more dramatic


Here is stave/blank before corrections


looking down from lower limb


the wiggle determines handle position and what is upper and lower limb, the stave is very narrow here; I leave the splinter first; bow will be asymmetrical



looking down from upper limb



looking down from lower limb, this tip is mighty curved sideways



humps and uneven crown


looking down from upper limb, twisted and misaligned


twisted and misaligned, upper limb is right



deflex on lower, reflex on upper fade: both twisted



upper limb is right; the back shows the arrow pass (wiggle); the back at the handle has a sideway angle about 25° (I will build it up to an O-shape with cork)



Also a view of the handle section, pencil marks (at the right half) shows the handle position



good view of the total twist of 80°



Lower fade and limb, the grain makes a side curve due the knot; the pencil marks are position marks for comparing lower and upper limb width



TO BE CONTINUED SOON ...

[burchett.donald]

   Thanks for doing this build along Simon!  80 degrees of twist comparing the nocks, this will be an interesting build...

                                                                                                                                                                  Don

[bjrogg]

I’m loving this so far Simson. I’ve wanted  to build one with you for a long time.

Bjrogg

PS this is going to be a sweet bow I can already see it

[superdav95]

Wow Simon looks like you got a challenge there.  Should be a beautiful specimen when your done.  I worked one similar to this a few months back and it wasn’t half  as knarly as this one and I was blown away how much work is involved.  I ended up with catastrophic failure on full draw when completed unfortunately I believe due to too much heat corrections in same spots.  Jamie from Ravenbeak warned me about the heat in same spot more then once and I didn’t listen. Oh well live and learn.  Are you heat correcting with oil?  Can’t wait to see your progress.  I like the idea of horn arrow pass too   I’ve done some on mine on white wood bows and the Buffalo horn looks good.  Keep us posted!

Dave

[PaSteve]

Thank you for sharing some of your knowledge, Simon. Following with great interest. Definitely a character build.

[Don W]

I'm looking forward to this build as well.

[Pat B]

What a fantastic stave, Simon. Looking forward to seeing your magic at work.     

[RyanY]

Pretty wild character in that one. Can’t wait to see what you do with it. Can you speak more to how you find a balance in keeping character and not over-correcting?

[Stixnstones]

This is gonna be crazy

[medicinewheel]

Yes, craaaaaaaaaazy!
Looking foreward!

[capitainepatenaude]

It's always a pleisure to see your work. I really love your website. I can't wait to see the final result. Good luck




Captaine Patenaude

[Hamish]

That's a lot of character!
This is going to be good.

[bownarra]

My days of messing about with wood like this are passed Straight wood for me
you can always grow your own osage Supply overseas of osage is getting to be a bit of a joke. Sellers prices have jumped somewhat since I started buying 'sage, that and the quality has fallen throught the floor.....staves like yours are getting to be the 'norm'. A few suppliers I know have clearly cut all the good stuff they have access to! When I think back to some of the staves I got years ago.....
Good luck and it will be interesting to see what you come up with.

[simson]

   Thanks for doing this build along Simon!  80 degrees of twist comparing the nocks, this will be an interesting build...

                                                                                                                                                                  Don

Don, the twist is distributed over some spots on the whole length of the bow, so it shouldn't be worst problem ...
we will see!

I’m loving this so far Simson. I’ve wanted  to build one with you for a long time.

Bjrogg

PS this is going to be a sweet bow I can already see it

Brian, I don't know how you can see a sweeet bow, but I will do my best   

Wow Simon looks like you got a challenge there.  Should be a beautiful specimen when your done.  I worked one similar to this a few months back and it wasn’t half  as knarly as this one and I was blown away how much work is involved.  I ended up with catastrophic failure on full draw when completed unfortunately I believe due to too much heat corrections in same spots.  Jamie from Ravenbeak warned me about the heat in same spot more then once and I didn’t listen. Oh well live and learn.  Are you heat correcting with oil?  Can’t wait to see your progress.  I like the idea of horn arrow pass too   I’ve done some on mine on white wood bows and the Buffalo horn looks good.  Keep us posted!

Dave

Dave, i don't use oil for the heating with hg often, only for really thick portions. On osage I have heated the same spots several times without problems. The trick is Imo to go not too hot. I use an electronic hg, it has a scale on the back for adjusting temp.



Don & Pat: Thanks guys, it will last some time. I have to wait inbetween the sessions, but try to stay tuned

Pretty wild character in that one. Can’t wait to see what you do with it. Can you speak more to how you find a balance in keeping character and not over-correcting?

Ryan, Imo corrections for string alignment is a must, but I try to hold the character. So tend to bend in portions were already curves are.
The side view is another thing. Theoretically it is possible to build a bow (longbow, d-bow, ..) from every stick, no matter how many humps and bumps, doglegs and so are in. It is more an aesthetically thing. Here in this buildalong I wanna show how I do recurved bows. This efforts more balanced out limbs. The recurves will be stiffer than the limbs, and I have to make the fades long (due some violations and very narrow). So there will not be too much length for the bending aerea.

My days of messing about with wood like this are passed Straight wood for me
you can always grow your own osage Supply overseas of osage is getting to be a bit of a joke. Sellers prices have jumped somewhat since I started buying 'sage, that and the quality has fallen throught the floor.....staves like yours are getting to be the 'norm'. A few suppliers I know have clearly cut all the good stuff they have access to! When I think back to some of the staves I got years ago.....
Good luck and it will be interesting to see what you come up with.

Mike, I understand what you say. For me it is a challange, and I like the work with the wood. Esp. when it comes to osage, it can be  bend so easily.

[simson]

The sessions:

First session: steaming the outer ⅔ of the limbs and bend in the recurves on a caul.

I do this always in two steps, every limb gets it’s extra caul. (I have made me a 5 or 6 different curved cauls, all as a pair). This is much more handy and maneuverable and you have more time for setting clamps on the right places.
A good amount of twist could also be corrected in this first session, but there is still a lot of it present.




Pic 1: Look at the direction of the cauls, about 50° remaining twist. Lower limb is in the foreground



Pic 2: Another view, upper limb in foreground. Look at the hump, two clamps reduce the amount, but still a lot of character is there. Good visible, the most of the twist is near handle and fades, and much more at upper limb.



Pic 3: I have steamed the recurves in the night before. Here it is naked the day after, lower limb in foreground



Pic 4: From this perspective already looking like a bow. Upper limb is in foreground



Pic 5: Upper limb is at left side, you can see the back, handle and lower limb are more or less visible in side view.



Pic 6: Here is more dramatic pic, lower limb in foreground.




TO BE CONTINUED SOON ...