Taking the plunge, or The Bow Who Lived (w/ full draw pic!)

[Frode]

Well, the easy part is almost done.  The back is mostly clear of sap wood, the limbs have been narrowed some, and the belly relieved from the fades out just enough to allow it to start bending.  The second and third pics are of the same knot cluster, different angles.  I'm finding that after I get down the heartwood on the top of the knot a nock file is great for winding in and around the clusters.  That and some 150 grit paper alternated with the corner/edge of a coarse flat file seems to clean everything out.  At this point, it feels less like woodworking and more like sculpture.  Which, at the end of the day, is a good thing.

Frode



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[JW_Halverson]

  ...Now might not be the best time for you to tackle that stave but if you do decide to go for it, you will learn a lot about wood and wood bows that you can't learn from reading books or replies here. A few years back I spent an entire winter with 3 pieces of osage most would have made firewood with. I was determined to make shootable bows from these three staves and by spring I had 5 shootable, well tillered bows with lots of character...

Better wood yields a better bow.  Bad wood yields a better bowyer. 

About the time you are going to throw a tool, chant the above mantra while you fill a bucket with icewater to soak your head.  It works.  I recommend no more than two pounds of ice per gallon.

[Postman]

 love that crazy stave!  Are you greasing the wood up good before dry heating it? (crisco, olive oil, ect.)I cracked a few by not doing that and also by being impatient bending out flaws. Good luck!

[Frode]

love that crazy stave!  Are you greasing the wood up good before dry heating it? (crisco, olive oil, ect.)I cracked a few by not doing that and also by being impatient bending out flaws. Good luck!

Postman,
I haven't got there quite yet (still cleaning up the back and knots a bit), but I had planned on using olive oil, unless something else works better?  I'm open.  Hopefully I can start untwisting it this week.

I tried olive oil on an old bow I'd been reworking ( a lumbering red oak jackhammer hand shock machine), putting a little recurve on the tips.  The first one developed small cracks across the curve, probably from not soaking enough heat into the wood, but the second one seemed to go well. 

Frode

[Frode]

So, after filing and scraping and rasping, I got it to floor tiller.  I wrapped a temporary hemp and TBIII nock on one end, and between that and the big knot on the other end, was able to get a long string on it and pull it on the tree just enough (2" max.) to see that it was bending about equal.  I wont put any more stress on it now until I get it straightened out some.

Here are a couple of pics of my high tech bending fixture.  I had something better in mind, but I'm out of baling wire and it's too dry to spit.

First a liberal coating of olive oil, and when I say liberal, I mean there was so much oil on it I almost went back in for some sun dried tomatoes and garlic.  But, I'm not good at multitasking - I can't eat and build a bow at the same, let alone chew gum and walk.

Anyway, a wrench, a clamp, and gravity pulled about 30-40 degrees of twist out in just a few minutes (10?  15?) of slow even heating, never going beyond the oiled sections.  It's cooling now, so by supper time I ought to know if it took or not.

Frode



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[Frode]

About two hours after the untwisting event, I went out and saw that the warm sun had loosened up my clamps, and everything was lying on the ground, but no harm done! 

The twist is still out and both tips are lined up with each other.  Of course, I can now see that both tips are twisted in the same direction relative to the grip, but much less than the original ends twist (first photo).  It should be relatively easy to square grip and tips in the next heating.

You can see in the second picture that the string tracks a bit to one side (half an inch, maybe) right at the grip, and the last photo shows that the stave now has right at about 2" of natural reflex.  I may try to address both track and twist in one heating if I can clamp everything down just so.

Frode


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[bowkee]

I would say you are doing well on that bow also

[wundabred]

how'd you get osage  over in norway?

[Parnell]

Looking good, Frode.  That stave is looking even more interesting than before.  I'll be watching the progress, for sure!

[Frode]

how'd you get osage  over in norway?

...unless... you've recognized my screen name!  I found it while doing some reading on pre-Viking era Scandinavia, still apparently a common name, but traceable back to the sixth century, at least.  Any name with less than twelve letters that survives for 1400+ years is a keeper.   

Well, I did a little more un-twisting this morning, and it generally seemed to go pretty well, but it leaves me with some questions. 
I've heard not to temper the back of a bow, that it would weaken it.  Is that different from heating the wood to bend?  Because I've been applying heat to all sides of this well oiled stave.

By the time I was done, the most heated areas had a nice deep golden color, not burnt, just deeper in color that last time.  A little light filing and sanding seems to take most of it off, so I wonder if I just cooked the oil.  Or is that a sign of too much heat?

And, the biggie, after everything cooled, I noticed a couple of cracks, running along the ring lines.  One is barely visible, a couple of rings below the back, and the larger one is a ring below that.  The limb wasn't spreading or separating, so I assumed the cracks might not be too deep, so I filled them with super glue, clamped them (which didn't change the appearance of them one iota), and filed them smooth after an afternoon of drying.  Is this one done, or can I wrap this area with silk and glue, as I've seen done on some bows?

And one more, I wiped down the back with isopropyl alcohol, to try to remove the olive oil, so I could glue on a silk backing if it comes to that.  It feels fairly clean and oil free, but is that sufficient?  Is there a better way?

Thanks,
Frode





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[Eric Krewson]

Side crack wood is bad wood. Every single bow I attempted to make with wood that showed side cracks in the wood failed and I am not a beginner bow maker by a long shot.

When I pull an osage stave out of my pile and see side cracks, no matter how small, I write on the stave in big letters"SIDE CRACKS" to make sure this piece of wood doesn't end up in a bow attempt. I then commit the wood to my scrap wood pile for tool handles. 

[George Tsoukalas]

Oh boy. I do agree with Eric. There's one shot. Try to remove wood from the edge until the crack is gone. Jawge

[Frode]

Hmmm.  Well Jawge, I filed down and down and down, and after an eighth of an inch the big crack still wasn't gone.  And since this was such a narrow stave to begin with, I'd say she's a beautiful... Walking Stick! 
On the other hand, Eric, if I cut it down, it surely would make for some nice tool or drawer handles.  The big knot end I cut off to get to 66" is destined to become a dibble for next spring, one of a kind, to be sure!
I don't count this as a loss by any means... I learned to chase a ring with no fear of ruining a good stave, and what osage is like under the knife. 
Thanks to everyone for the encouragement and suggestions on this one!  There's enough left on that log for two more full length tries (and not nearly so curvy, now), or I could try a splice, or even a take down.  So many options, what to do, what to do...
Thanks again!
Frode

[George Tsoukalas]

That's the way it goes, Frode. Sometimes you gotta just love the process. Jawge

[Alpinbogen]

Frode, You picked a challenge, for sure!  The biggest difficulty in that stave, as I see it, is simply being able to trace a straight line along the grain from one end to the other, since no split ever runs perfectly true.  I've worked alot of skinny staves like that and it's a crap shoot as to what length you'll get out of it after pencil tracing the actual grain.  Cut it off where it runs off.  The whoop-de-doo, if it remains, is another issue...not in itself, but in that it looks like it tapers to a tight "V" and there is very little wood beneath it.  There may not be enough thickness after flattening the V to make a bow from that spot.  Keeping a radiused belly will help.  Keep that sapwood if you must, but if it comes down to it, cut off the V in lieu of the check if the grain allows.  Last, but not least, is that wicked side check.  My experience is that they aren't "necessarily" deal breakers, but they definitely aren't good, either.  Get rid of what you can (narrow already, I can see), going down to 3/4" width if you must.   Sinew wrap anything after that.  A backing, as you suggested though, isn't needed for this stick and won't do anything to solve the other issues.  Since you're already this far, pencil along the grain to see what usuable wood you have, and trim the fat from there.  Then you can decide whether or not to dump more time and effort into it or to call it.  If you find green lights on all fronts (or even just all yellows), I'd try to keep this one pretty mildly stressed, meaning kind of light draw weight for whatever dimension you can muster from it.  Looks like you're doing well so far, but deciding when to call it is tough.  All of us only have so much time and energy to put into such things, and the decision to cut everything off becomes tougher the more we already have into it.  Good luck!  I've been at that point a bunch of times.