Osage Bow (that hopefully doesn't take 10 months)

[Marin]

Okay I think the problem wad that i want leaving enough string to splice back in so I redid both, leaving 2 in for one an about 3 in for the other (that was an accident). It is holding when braced so I hope that means it's good.
Only problem is that at the right length, the center really isn't that twisted. It's easy to pull the bundles apart. Is that fine?

[Eric Krewson]

Your twists in your loop are not tight enough. Make a reverse twist with one bundle with your right hand while holding the two bundles with your left, make it tight. Pinch off what you just did between your thumb and forefinger of your left hand and make another twist with your other bundle, pinch this off and keep going. The tighter you make it the better string you will make.

Like this;

[Eric Krewson]

I am trying to give instructions that you can understand but I see where they can be confusing ; OK, when you do the reverse twist with a bundle, don't just give it a quick twist and pull it back toward you and start the same on the other bundle, give the bundle several twists. Twist it, get another grip and twist again until it just won't twist another time from being so tightly twisted, then pull it toward you, pinch it off and do the same to the other bundle.

You twist away from you  (clockwise) with the individual bundles and then pull the twisted strands toward you( counterclockwise) and pinch it off before you proceed to the next bundle

[BowEd]

What can help bud is to wax those threads real good too as to holding that twist for ya.

[Marin]

Well I think Eric's emphasis on tightening the twist was key because my story loops turned out way better. When I put then on the bow, they held though when I first strung it I felt something slip. The loops were still there so I know they weren't the problem but I don't know what it was.
Attached are pics of the loops. I hope they're good, then I can serve the string and finish the bow.

[Marin]

Hey guys,
I've been very busy lately and don't think I ll have time to shoot in this bow for the next couple of weeks. I'm sorry, I really tried to finish this thing up quickly and  wasn't able to go quick enough, plus I didn't hit my weight.
But I have been thinking of a solution to my problem. To increase weight and get rid of that annoying deflex that never comes out, I was thinking about modifying the length. By that I mean making a shorter draw, plains indian style bow. I know the comanche used unbacked osage orange for their horse bow and it might be interesting to try to replicate that. I'm thinking cutting off 8" on both sides, to get rid of the tricky knot on the one limb and the deflex on the other, and shortening the width to 1". It would make it 44" in length and I could add a slight reflex in the handle to give it more stored power.it would have a maximum of 22" draw so maybe I should start looking into sinew backing.
Does this sound like a good idea? Do you think I can still make it a self bow or should I just try making it a sinew backed bow?

[Strichev]

Maybe  make a new bow? Bigger,  better, more beautiful, tillered impeccably, without the slightest hint of deflex, the materialization of perfection itself. That's how I always see my next bow. And then it develops 3 inches of set. But the next one...

Sometimes you have to move on and just icorporate lessons learned into the next attmpt. Besides, making them is more than half the fun.

[Stick Bender]

Marin if your going to pike your bow it will Ruffly increase your draw weight by 5 lb. For each pair of  1in. You take off the limbs , but you probably would be better off finishing your bow piked a bit rather then trying to convert it to something it's not ,especially a sinew bow, learning bow making is a tuff game seems there is a big learning curve for most regardless of your skills or intelegence most fail a few times achieving consitent good bows , but I guarantee you learn more about bow making by missing your weight or breaking bows,I did & do and picking your self up dusting off and making another bow then just about any other way , I don't think there is such a thing as a perfect natural material bow there is always some thing that can be improved on the next  !

[Marin]

Thanks guys,
I could start another bow but I just thought that it could be possible to try and learn some more by reshaping this osage bow into something else. I'm not saying I did not learn anything from making this, I just thought it might be interesting to try and work more with osage.

[DC]

Shoot this one and start another. You can always come back to this bow and do your modifications. Actually that's a fun part of all this, coming back and picking bows out of the bucket of shame and making them work. But in order to do that you have to have a bucket of shame. That's where all the knowledge is stored.