10 years later... my Osage is ready.

[superdav95]

Oh man ya I’ve been there way more then I can count at this point.  Good attitude with it anyway.  Forge ahead.  I think your assessment is likley correct.  With those snaky staves each scrape is a calculated curl.  Too bad that would have been a very pretty bow.  There was a thread on here by bjorge who posted about his finger calipers.  I believe is comes into play here with these snaky staves.  When I work on a very challenging stave matching thickness is important.  Belly ring counting helps too to get it right.  Consider too that This may have just been too much to ask of this piece of wood.  Very tight ringed Osage can be a gamble at best.  I’ve had more of these end in disaster.  On those tight ringed Osage bows I back them with rawhide as a little insurance.  Another thing.  Keep that lower limb and think about doing a socket tenon or sleeve 2 piece bow.  Just saying.   

[lenador]

That's unfortunate but when they break its a good learning experience.

Side note....as a guy in the electrical trade, I am wincing at the sight of that panel in the background lol.

I'm an Commercial light industrial HVACR tech. I'm re wiring the house but also making the panel larger so there are a  bunch of temped in circuits. Between all new plumbing, moving the water heater, the doing the electric, and building this bow I've been busy lol.

[lenador]

Well that sucks. I kinda thought you were home free. On to the next one

Side note....as a guy in the electrical trade, I am wincing at the sight of that panel in the background lol.

Never even noticed it SD but being in the trades myself I do understand why you picked up on it. Masonry is my curse.

I had the outside tuck pointed and show them the basement and they didn't even want to touch it basically told me I'd spend an arm and a leg tuck pointing and trying to get the paint off the brick.  I can't remember what paint it is but he said it was good to be a lot more work than it's worth..

[Muskyman]

Painting brick is never a good idea.. brick needs to breath and painting traps water inside and will cause it to deteriorate. You can stain it and be okay. That said, I understand a lot of people paint brick
And it doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve actually got a brick front on my house that’s painted 😁 If it’s painted you need to keep the paint in good shape so water can’t get to your masonry. Paint is very difficult to remove from brick for sure.
I’m like you and always working on my house and trying to make bows can be difficult to find time for.

Good luck on that next piece of Osage. I’m sure you’ll find some better pieces in the staves you have left.

26 years in business for myself and 20 before I started my business. Off topic here but just trying to help a bit if I can. Feel free to pm me if the mods don’t like it.

[SDBurntStick]

Sorry to have gotten off topic about the electric panel.  Makes me want to go to work on it.  I am in the fire protection industry and mainly do low voltage fire alarm/security work and data center fire protection.  I know what you mean with balancing the work on the house and fitting in time for hobbies. 

[lenador]

Painting brick is never a good idea.. brick needs to breath and painting traps water inside and will cause it to deteriorate. You can stain it and be okay. That said, I understand a lot of people paint brick
And it doesn’t happen overnight. I’ve actually got a brick front on my house that’s painted 😁 If it’s painted you need to keep the paint in good shape so water can’t get to your masonry. Paint is very difficult to remove from brick for sure.
I’m like you and always working on my house and trying to make bows can be difficult to find time for.

Good luck on that next piece of Osage. I’m sure you’ll find some better pieces in the staves you have left.

26 years in business for myself and 20 before I started my business. Off topic here but just trying to help a bit if I can. Feel free to pm me if the mods don’t like it.

Yeah that's exactly what the guy said. Since it's a 100 years house it's going to weep from the outside so painting it was a major mistake. Like you said it's deterituong in some areas but others it won't come off. I tried using a heavy duty paint remover and wire brush and it took 6 hours to do maybe a 10 sq ft area on my entry way.
He recommended redoing the foundation block and installing a drain around the perimeter. Said it would cost more but would be a better solution than dumping money into the brick that was already compromised.

I've got two staves picked out, plan ing in starting a thread soonish. I've been hunting this past week.

[lenador]

Sorry to have gotten off topic about the electric panel.  Makes me want to go to work on it.  I am in the fire protection industry and mainly do low voltage fire alarm/security work and data center fire protection.  I know what you mean with balancing the work on the house and fitting in time for hobbies.

As an HVACR guy it gets stuck with everything from high voltage to low voltage to plumbing to computers etc... Fun stuff lol. Now days I'm 99% heavy commercial light industrial so I do a lot of talking and organizing people and permits etc... I still get to get dirty here and there but it's not as much grunt work as often.
I think we can talk off topic as long as we still have some on topic over post 😂.
 Btw I looked back at this post and remembered I had a check near the handle. After investigating the break I found infact that's where it started. I think if my tiller was better it would have lasted longer but I thing eventually it would have let go. Glad it was in my basement and not in the woods when I had it pointed at a deer.

[Muskyman]

Maybe soda blasting would work. Anyway, good luck with the house and with the hunting. Hope your next stave is a good one..