Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Ozzy on January 29, 2013, 10:14:41 pm
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I'm new to osage did I do this lay out right in this stave any help will be appreciated thanks Ozzy
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Yes, if the stave is naturally curved like that but you'll have to align the limbs some to get the string near the handle.
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You are looking good so far Ozzy. You better start warming that heat gun up. ;D
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May need a torch for that one.
Joking. Don't use a torch.
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I plain to cut it out then chase the last ring floor tiller it then heat the snoot out of it slowly and see what kind of miss I can get in to thanks all :D
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Looking good,is it well seasoned ? if not you may want to seal it good and steam it first.If it is seasoned I would straighten it in a couple or 3 sessions,with heat not trying to get it all at once. :) Be sure to have it floor tillered close,it will react to the heat much better the closer it is to bow dimensions. :)
Pappy
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Yes the stave was cut 3 years ago by osage outlaw so it should be dry thank for all the in put
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Leave your tips EXTRA WIDE until you get it straightend. 2" should be plenty.
If you have to adjust them, Left or Right, you will have the wood to do it with.
David
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That next stave will be a breeze compared to this one Ozzy ;)
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Long way to move on that one! I'd use steam to get it over.
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I'd work it like Pappy suggested. ...and like Ridge Runner suggested I'd not only leave the tips wide but also the handle. You don't need to shape either until the bow is tillered and having the handle area oversized give you a place to clamp it while working on it plus if there is a string alignment problem minor adjustments can be made by removing wood from one side or the other at the handle and the tips.
It looks like most of the straightening will be on one limb(closest in the pic) from the handle out the limb.
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So should I floor tiller it at the width it is now? Its right at 2"
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I'd cut it out to shape but leave the tips a little wide, say 1/2" to 3/4". Do a straightening session then floor tiller. It would be difficult to get a good floor tiller with that much bend in that one limb.
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Here it is cut to rough size I left the tips 3/4" and the handle 2" and chased it to the ring that willl be the back. Tomorrow Ill cut some thinkness off it and try some heat. How thick should i leave the limbs?
Thanks Ozzy ;D
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Thin them out until you get a good floor tiller bend. Whats up with the end of that stave? It looks like the growth rings are running the wrong way. I know which way that stave bent so those have to be saw marks or something.
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Yup saw marks
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They threw me at first. It's looking good. You are getting some good practice for that other stave. It will be a breeze compared to this one. It might not even need any straightening. That DR bow I showed you the other evening is how thin I get my limbs before heat bending them.
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Cool I hope to post more pic tomorrow ;D
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Found this today dont know if it will be a killer or not it still 3/4 in thick at it now. Just going to chip away at it tell it brakes or shoots Hope to have it ready to heat this weekend :-\
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That might not be a deal breaker. Is the bumped area on the back where the knot is? It will probably get smaller as you remove wood off the belly. You might have to leave a little thickness around it. Just see how it goes while tillering.
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Is that knot on the belly? If so I wouldn't worry too much about it. If it is pithy clean it out and fill with saw dust and super glue, if solid saturate with super glue. If it is on the back you'll have to do something else.
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Its on the belly should have said that sorry
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Unless the back is violated it shouldn't be a problem.
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Cool thanks for all you all help this is a great site :D
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Well got some work done to it finally thanks to the help of Clint and Chris down at Moontree a few weeks back and Tracy stoping by tonight and giving me some direction thanks guys see what you think
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That's pretty impressive. That bend was a doosy! Good job on that.
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That was all Clint I just held the heat gun >:D
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That's looking great Ozzy. Did our corrections hold? It still looks straight in the picture. I'm glad you were able to get that crack out of it.
I went back and looked at the first picture of that stave. Man that thing was crooked.
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Yep its held nice thanks
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That straightening was all you Ozzy. Its your heat gun experience that did the trick. All I did was throw a clamp on it. OK, maybe 20 clamps.
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Is that counting Dave's clamps too ::)
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So far so good from here ;)
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I just acquired quite a fewosage staves that are fairly crooked. This thread has totally restored my faith that I'll be able to get at least a few bows out of them! Any chance I could get a rundown to your process for straightening this one?
Can't wait to see how this one turns out! Great work guys!
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That is really some good straightening! Jawge
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The pics look good. That one limb that has the rolling wave grain through it will even out with a little scraping at a time. This bow has gone through a massive evolution since the Moontree! Post pics or give me a shout when you get everything bending the way you want. Should be a dandy deer killer for this fall!
Tracy
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I think I met that boomarange bow.
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;D
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Awesome job straightening that one out. That was a lot of bending with dry heat. Osage rocks.
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Good example of what dry heat will do with dry osage, nice works guys. Besides statics, I havent found a reason to use steam with osage in a good while.
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After some more scraping :D
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Lookin' good Ozzy. It's about time to brace that puppy.
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It just pulled to brace so I'm going to try in the morning ;D
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good deal. I'll be watching for more pics this evening.
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That left side looks to be bending the way you want now. Scrape, scrape, scrape :)
Tracy
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That is looking good. Are you going to finish it in a nice metal flake color?
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No fake wood grain I can make it look like osage ::)
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After even more scraping ;)
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It's looking real good. It could be the shadow playing tricks on my eyes, but the right limb seemes to be humping up a bit at about 6" from the handle. And the left limb looks a bit stiff. The left limb being a bit stiff can cause exta pressure on the right limb causing the "humping effect."
Also, the right limb looks a bit stiff from half way out. You can see that in the brace picture.
What I'd do on the right limb is scrape about 5 scrapes from the fade out to about 2". Then I would do maybe 10 scraps mid-limb to about 5 inches from the tip.
Then go to the left limb and scape about 5 scapes on the left limb from fade to 1/3 out. Then 5 scrapes from fade to out 2/3 on the left limb. Then check it again.
It's getting about time to start doing tillering checks with a mirror and/or camera with you actually drawing the bow. It's all about "little" tweaking now until you get to the full draw.
Lookig good.
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Thanks I'll give it a try after work tomorrow and post some more pic
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And more scraping its 55 at 23 but the pic only at 20
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Did you re-tight your string or did you put the bow on the tree with opposite limbs on the right and left side? You're tryign to confuse me. IMHO you should decide which limb is going to be on the right side and consistantly put it on the right side. This will avoid confusion. With that said, it is important to swith them to double check so it's not shadows or your eyes playing trick on you. BUT, then orient the bow the same to make the adjustments, if that makes sense.
Also, you're now pulling the 3 inches farther than the pictue you've post. I have no idea what you bow looks like NOW. So I'm afraid to give you any advice. You're down to the wire now. Five scrape in the wrong place could be the difference between a shootable bow and a great bow.
I will point out things for you to look according to your 20 draw picture. The right limb from handle to the first gray verticle line is flat. There needs to be some bend here. Not a lot but some. And on that limb, there's a flat section at the second verticle gray line. That area needs to bend.
One the left limb, it's flat from the second gray verticle line to the tips. I'm not sure what kind of tiller you're looking for. Pappy and the Twin Oaks guys make bow with a 60/40 bend. That is 60% of the inner limb does most of the bending while the remain 40% pretty much a lever. I remember reading Pappy referring to it as "Tennessee Molly" once. Blackhawk's bows look very similar at full draw, but he recurves the out 1/3 of his limbs. So what looks straight at full draw is actually bending a bit.
I wil be home around 6PM Wednesday. I'll keep my cell phone with me all evening. Take a picture of the bow bending at 23", post it and call me. I'll better able to help you when I can see where the bow is NOW. 859-582-2306
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Looks like mid 1/3 of both limbs and stay away for now the fad out several inches on the left,little to much bending going on there. Looking nice. How much weight and length have you got to give ?
Pappy
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I will Dave thanks
I would like to get 55 at 28 Pappy thanks
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Here she is i was wrong its 22"
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Ozzy
That boomerang stave is really looking good. I'd stay away from the 1/3 of that right limb, the left limd looks a little stiff right off of the fads. But take my info with a grain of salt. When I want to stay away for an area I wrap it with some painters blue tape, it seems to work for me.
DB
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You're coming right along! Study a lot and scrape a little. You're almost there.
Tracy
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:-\
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55 AT 25
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I'll post this so others can disagree with me if they have better ideas.
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On your draw pics the top limbs looks stiff. Work it first as suggested. Then see what the bottom limb looks like.
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Thanks Dave that makes the pic on my computer I put the circle on make more sense I was scraping the wrong spots :(
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Remember tillering a bow is all about tension. If there's too much in one spot take it away from another. Look for the strong/stiff spots. They WILL be there. Also, don't forget the tension caused by the oposite limb. It's all a balancing act with tension. Seek balance grasshopper. :)
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Where are you on weight Ozzy? You have some stiff areas to work on. I wouldn't remove any wood from the two spots Dave marked with red.
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Im still good on weight im at the high end with 3" of draw left so I can go down 10# and be good with it
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Thin out those stiff areas a little and you will be good to go. I keep my camera with me when I'm tillering a bow. I snap a picture of it drawn and then check it on the camera. I can take my time looking it over and not worry about keeping it at full draw for to long.
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I am highly impressed! I would've screwed that one up for sure! I have a few staves that are comparable to what you started with. Most of them are the most seasoned staves I have for some reason. They just keep getting shoved back in the pile year after year. Excellent work! Josh
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Ozzy if 55# isn't your target weight, don't pull it to that. If I'm looking for a 45# bow as a minimum, I don't draw any farther than #45 through the tillering process until the last 2 or 3 inches. Hopefully, by then I've worked out all the issues (and usually created more :) )
Reasons being: If you take to the maximum then you maximize the issues creating more set.
I just like to "ease" into my max draw weight. Others might disagree and I welcome their opinion. For my 26" draw I will pull it to 40 or 45 to like 20" then starting working it up if I see no problems. When I see a problem I try to correct it immediately. Around 22 inches I make the dicision if I really want a 50 or a 55 pound bow. Or maybe, I'm not going to keep this bow and might want it to draw 28 inches. All my options are still open and I haven't over stressed the wood while I'm working out the kinks. BUT, if I discide on the higher draw weight, I excercise the bow a lot. I want to see any flaws that might creep up. I will probably work the tips down to their near finished width/thickness and roughed the handle out so I can short-draw shoot the bow. This is my bow boot camp. I'm training it and tweaking it to it's final goal.
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Looking more like a shooter :). I think Dave's eyes and schematics will put you where you want to be.
Tracy
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Thanks all
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Thanks Clint and Tracy for chiming in. Being a novice bow builder I find it comforting to get second opinions to my advice. Don't hesitate to correct me if I start steering Ozzy wrong.