Help me with a special bow

[jeffp51]

I have two staves that I REALLY REALLY want to get good bows out of in the next few months. I want your input and feedback on the project.
One is a 78" yew stave--I will get to that one in another post. 

Here is the story.  Many of you will remember Fred Arnold.  He helped me and a great many others as I was first starting out with bow building.  Two years ago he ran the bow trade.  In that trade, he sent me a beautiful yew stave (from his B-stash, he said) that I was able to turn into a really nice bow.  It would have really hurt to give it away, except Mike, (Swampman) was so thrilled with it, that sending it to him made it all worth it.

Unfortunately, Fred passed away suddenly the following winter.  When I found out, I sent a note of condolence to his son David, who posted of his father's passing on this site.  I told him how much I admired his father and what  he had done for me, and how hard it had been to give that yew bow away.  So I was surprised and thrilled when David offered to send me one of his father's staves.  I shamelessly accepted.  Just before Christmas  I received a nice long package in the mail. . .

So,

now I absolutely have to build a beautiful and durable (and fast if possible) bow from this stave. Failure is not an option.

 Here is what I have:  the stave is a 66" osage stave,  about 2"wide, and with no knots in the back--not even pin knots.  It has been chased to one growth ring--except for the last 4" on one end that has been taken down another 3 rings.  about 1/4" below that begin some thicker rings with better early/late wood ratios.  The only flaw in the stave is a side knot/branch right on the edge of the stave at about mid limb on one side. It terminates about 1/2" below the current back , but it looks like the rings narrow at this point and might cause some challenges when chasing further rings.

Here is what I am looking for in the bow:  I would like to aim for 55# at a 29" draw.  I think I want short static recurves--but something a little more conservatively reflexed may be okay too.  In short, I want to build a bow that when I finish it and shoot it, it reminds me every time what a great guy Fred was and how lucky I was that my path crossed with his even a little bit.

send me your suggestions, and I will post progress regularly.

[jeffp51]

I thought I would aim for the lower of these two rings, but the upper one is a possibility too.

[Pat B]

Take it down to the first clean ring and make a bow, not necessarily the thickest but the first clean ring.

[TimBo]

That's a cool story - good luck!  How far in does the knot go?  It looks from here like you could narrow the bow and get rid of that side - 2" is more than you will need width-wise.  Definitely be careful chasing a ring over that spot; as you said, it can make things tricky.  That shouldn't be a big deal though.

[Badger]

        It looks like that knot will just go away as you build and narrow the bow.

[jeffp51]

I am also pretty sure the knot will be gone as I narrow the stave. The only concern is the narrowing rings, but Osage is relatively easy to chase a ring on.

[jeffp51]

Chasing a ring can be very relaxing.  I took it down to the first ring from the previous picture. I love how osage goes smooth as glass with a cabinet scraper. There was just one pin knot, which I left proud.  I will smooth it a little when I do the final finish. Now for some layout.  I am thinking 1.33" wide to mid limb and then tapering to .5" at the tip.  Total length is 66.5"   If I wanted to make static recurves of 60-70 degrees, how thick would I need to keep the tips to keep them from pulling out, and how much length would I need to keep stiff?

[Swampman]

Get Jeff. I don't have any advice on top thickness but I wanted to say hi.  You definitely have my interest in this build i am rooting for this stage to become a bow.  I am sure you will pull that off. It looks like a great stave.

On another note, I recently got a new job and I work from home now. In our new house i have a home office and the first thing I hung on the wall is a bow hanger that JW made and I received in a Christmas trade.  I then hung the yew bow i got from you.  I consider that wall to be my trophy wall.

Again, looking forward to seeing this now build.

Mike

[BowEd]

It's important not to over think these things but do understand your stated reasons for a successful build.You've got a very nice piece of osage there for the build.Length of statics on that length of bow could be 4 to 6 inches depending on your form and 9/16" thick to even a little less when finished will be enough to hold.I usually steam to bend at that thickness of 9/16"  & close to 3/4" wide too/then dry heat temper them a few days later while clamped to the same form.
Others have different ways that are successful also but I'd tiiler that bow to brace to be sure everything is in line good.Then bend your tips.Get alignment good for sure and continue to tiller it to the end.Some tiller out to 20" too before bending which works fine too.
Good luck.It's a very nice piece of wood there.

[Pat B]

On the pin knot...carefully remove the ring pieces left around it but leave the back ring at the knot smooth and unviolated. It will be proud but that's no problem. Violating the ring can be disastrous. Since this stave is special, if you are not familiar with making a static recurve I'd suggest just making a straight limb bow for your friend. You could kick the tips up a little but building your first recurve isn't as easy as it looks. Trying to get the tips to line up can be a task for even the best bowyers. You have a very nice stave there and it will make a very nice bow. Learn to build recurves on other not so special wood. After you've made a few then you can try it on another special piece of wood.

[Hamish]

If you haven't already removed the excess wood around the pin knot yet, I would leave a swelling of wood around the edges of the knot equal to the width of the knot. Otherwise you are giving the gremlins a head start at wrecking your bow. If it looks like it will get removed when narrowing the stave, all well and good but leave that swelling until the last possible time to ensure you don't stuff it up.

[jeffp51]

Pat and Ed, thanks for the advice.  Of all the bows I have made (maybe a dozen successful ones so far) only two have been straight limbed. The rest have had working recurves in them, if relatively conservative.  I am pretty comfortable bending wood, especially osage, which seems to be pretty forgiving if you are careful.  I was wondering how much thicker than the rest of the limb the tip would have to be to stay more static.  I may just try for more curve but still working a little. I really like the results that Simon in Bavaria and Marc St. Louis and other similar bowyers are getting.

Pat, I would love to see a picture of what one of your pin knots look like when you are through with it.  I have always just left a little wart on the back with an extra ring around the pin, and that seems to hold up well, but I have always wondered how others do it.

I did some reduction on the stave last night.  that big side knot will likely leave a little wave in the grain, and the wood around it is really, really hard and dense, but it will likely disappear before I am done.  The stave is pretty straight, but has a small amount of deflex in one tip that will come out when I bend in the curves.  there is also about 30 degrees of twist that I will have to remove to align the tips.  I have done that several times in the past, and I am pretty confident with the process. Osage responds well to heat bending.

The color is really rich on this piece.  some osage is almost fluorescent yellow, but this is much more in the orange range, with one red streak in the end that will likely disappear before I reach finished thickness--unless there is another streak below it.  It is a really solid dense stave, and I am optimistic at this point.

[Pat B]

I've lost all my pics either to Photobucket or my crashed computer back up. I don't have any pics of pin knots. A pin knot is basically a very small knot and I treat them the same.

[BowEd]

Jeff....The longitudal grain on your stave looks pretty straight with practically 0 swirls even around that pin knot.I suspect if more rings were taken off that pin knot might even disappear,but some can appear somewhere else from experience here so as is looks good to go there.You should be good with it being that amount of distance in from the edge too and with the intent of making a recurve from it.
I'd say it's your propellers in the stave that will take the time to get flat with the handle for more ease of alignment of tips.Although as you know from the past recurves always take a little more time to make whether they be working or static tips.

[jeffp51]

Here is an update with hooks heated in and tillered to 14 inches.  there are a couple of tricky spots--a little kink out of the right fade, and the spot where that knot was on the left.  I have most of the twist out, but might still need a slight adjustment before I am done.

I am trying to think what I can do to make this bow particularly distinct.  Any ideas ?