Primitive Archer

Thanks everyone. It’s still season here in Missouri but I have all the venison I need for the year. Looking forward to next year.
Woody

Like said above, you can make any style bow from Osage. Please post a few pics of the log, stave and end grain. Also, after you remove the bark and sapwood be sure to seal the back and ends. Even if it is a 20 year old log it still has some moisture in it and it can check if you don't seal it. I like to use spray shellac but any shellac will do. I like shellac because it is easily removed later with alcohol.

If it has nice rings (i.e. thicker late wood than the lighter colored early wood) then you can get away with as narrow as inch and a quarter at the fades. I prefer at least inch and three-eighths, but I've had the narrower limbed bows take a little more set but shoot just fine.

If you find checks that got into the heartwood, don't lose hope! Just get to the very first layer of yellow, give it a light sanding with 150 grit, and try laying out a bow that avoids a check that runs out the edge. If you don't get it, don't fret it. Carefully try the next growth ring, and repeat trying to find a layout that avoids checks that run out the edge.

More than once I have been able to lay out a bow with one limb on the far right edge of a stave and the other limb on the far left edge of a stave. So what? Lay out those lovely limbs and draw in a handle that connects the two. You'll wanna make sure the grip and fades are a little more robust, but you can still pull off a bow even if the center lines of the two limbs don't connect in the grip area. Osage is pretty forgiving stuff.

there's a simple trick boys!

dont pull it apart and don't use epoxy like west sytems or ea 40. those are artificially thickend with thixotropic agents.

use a casting resin suitable for wood. these normally are used for making laminations of fiber cloth and they are designed to creep.

pour it in that crack and it will quickly displaces ALL of the air and automatically creep into every crack. no heating required, room temp is just fine. use one that has a open time of at least 60 min and clamp after 30min. If the crack goes all through seal it well on one side with super adhesive tape - ducktape does not work, the epoxy creeps underneath!

cheers

Wow! That's a brand new word to me. Thixoptropic. Had to look it up and per Wikipedia:
Thixotropy is a time-dependent shear thinning property. Certain gels or fluids that are thick or viscous under static conditions will flow (become thinner, less viscous) over time when shaken, agitated, shear-stressed, or otherwise stressed (time-dependent viscosity). They then take a fixed time to return to a more viscous state.[1] Some non-Newtonian pseudoplastic fluids show a time-dependent change in viscosity; the longer the fluid undergoes shear stress, the lower its viscosity. A thixotropic fluid is a fluid which takes a finite time to attain equilibrium viscosity when introduced to a steep change in shear rate. Some thixotropic fluids return to a gel state almost instantly, such as ketchup, and are called pseudoplastic fluids. Others such as yogurt take much longer and can become nearly solid. Many gels and colloids are thixotropic materials, exhibiting a stable form at rest but becoming fluid when agitated. Thixotropy arises because particles or structured solutes require time to organize.

Thank you for the new word and concept, Simk.

proof?

I for example have this horn-sinew-wood composite. I opened it carelessly and braced step-through-method after the sinew was dry. it hasnt been tillered.....lesson learnt.

I braced the bow again and put resin on one side. After a little while it came out the other side of the hairline crack. I unstringed the bow, and after curing I finished the bow and it serves me well now as a personal bow and test bow since summer. Yes I also added a little extra sinew to the area. Nevertheless its amazing that this works even in the most stressed part of the bow right where the powerlam ends.

I have fixed a lots of hairline cracks and checks that way and they never came back. Actually you cannot check weather there's glue in every crack finally - its a similar thing as going to church - just have to believe