Am I doing this right?

[Hickoryswitch]

When i have a stave that has dips and waves I use one of the split edges as a guide. Is it correct that this will basically follow the flow of the stave as long as theirs not any knots to compensate for? If not how do you all do it? I've seen some absolutely crazy character bows on here. The more i see them the more i wanna build one.

[Dano]

I follow the grain in the back.

[Pat B]

Basically you follow the contour of the back when shaping the belly. You will have some taper to your limbs but following the ups and down is the only way to be successful. The difficult part is being able to see beyond the ups and downs and see good tiller. That comes with practice.   If you take your time and don't allow yourself to get frustrated and know when to walk away you will not only be successful but will learn a plethora of info about building wood bows.      Pat

[Pappy]

What Pat said,if you don't do that you will have thick and thin spots al along the limb. :)Show
us some pictures and keep us posted as you move along. 
   Pappy

[DCM]

I'm sure we're all saying the same thing here but in the interest of not leading a newbie astray, you will have thick and and thin spots in thickness along the lenght of the bow particularly if you have up and down travel (back to belly) in the grain.  These "whoop-d-dos" are generally stiffer, and thus finish thinner in the areas which are in effect reflexed, and weaker thus consequently thicker in the areas that are deflexed.  It's not uncommon for and up and down run to have the belly side filled with another ring.  But ultimately this all get's worked oot during tillering, you just need to rough shape down enough to facilitate the intitial bending then let the wood guide you from there.  You don't want stiff or flat spots when you are done, just like a straight limbed bow, so naturally some parts will bend more than others on a whoop-d-do bow.

[Dano]

I guess I missunderstood Hickoryswitch, It sounded like he was talking about a snaky stave, not woop de doos.

[Badger]

Dano, I think you understould. I usually take a pencil and try to follow the grain on the back, as a rule pretty easy to see, a draw knife tends to follow the grain better than most tools I believe. Steve

[Hickoryswitch]

I was thinking more on a snaky stave. Thats mostly what i get with the white wood I use. I rarely have anything with too much character. I've not had the privilege of working with Osage yet. Which usually seems to have the most character.