starting new bow, questions..

[aero86]

ok, so i found a decent straight grained section of osage that i decide to try my hand on.  i had a plan in mind before i started it, and ive run into a few issues.. 

removing the back was easy, a few big knots, one on where my handle is going, no big deal, and one on the belly, not sure about that. 

but

i was removing the sap wood, and lo and behold, 500 pin knots show up.  blah!!  i plan to sinew the back of the bow anyways for practice, also because its going to be a short bow with osage siyahs attach.  i had planned on practicing following a growth ring with it, but its a smaller diameter, 2.5 at the base, and the rings are oh so close together.  my questions are, since i plan on sinew backing the bow anyways, can i just de crown the bow?  also, the little pin knots on the belly, can i flatten them out? 

thanks in advance!

[gstoneberg]

ok, so i found a decent straight grained section of osage that i decide to try my hand on.  i had a plan in mind before i started it, and ive run into a few issues.. 

removing the back was easy, a few big knots, one on where my handle is going, no big deal, and one on the belly, not sure about that. 

but

i was removing the sap wood, and lo and behold, 500 pin knots show up.  blah!!  i plan to sinew the back of the bow anyways for practice, also because its going to be a short bow with osage siyahs attach.  i had planned on practicing following a growth ring with it, but its a smaller diameter, 2.5 at the base, and the rings are oh so close together.  my questions are, since i plan on sinew backing the bow anyways, can i just de crown the bow?  also, the little pin knots on the belly, can i flatten them out? 

thanks in advance!

Pin knots (well, knots in general) are often worse in small diameter staves.  Yes, you can decrown the bow if you're going to sinew back.  I still try to generally stay at the same ring in the center through the length of the bow but it isn't required.  Small knots in the belly can be ignored as long as they are not right on the limb's edge.  Larger knots are more problematic as they have hard brittle wood around then.  If I have a large knot in a limb (like over a half inch diameter), I sometimes leave a couple inches of unbending wood at that point.  Usually in that case I would make the limb a little long or tiller to a shorter draw length.   I've also left the limb extra wide and drilled out large knots to try and get to bending wood. A few years ago I used to look for knotty bow wood because I thought it was fun.  But now I would more likely try to keep the larger knots outside the limb or in the handle as you have done, or in the last few inches of limb that doesn't have to bend.  Dealing with knots really slows down bow building.  Good luck.

George

[aero86]

thats what i was planning to do on the back of the bow, try to keep one ring down the middle.  as for the knot on the limb, the drilling out idea is a good one.  this bow might have just be a broken one from the beginning and me waiting for another piece of wood.  we shall see!

[gstoneberg]

You never know about knotty osage, there might be a great bow in there.  My last one had a larger knot than I like running through the center of the limb, probably a quarter inch in diameter.  But, it bent just fine right through it.  Hopefully your bow will behave as well.  Good luck with yours. 

George