First osage in progress...Reduced weight

[DEllis]

It's all falling into place!       Ain't osage cool bow wood?

I'm really liking it so far. Thanks Pat
Darcy

[George Tsoukalas]

Nice job on that stave. Looking really good. Jawge

[Postman]

your patience is doing justice to that great looking stave, and congrats on that big 'ol bunny.

[JW_Halverson]

Yup, it's ruined, that's for sure.   

Good progress, should be shooting it's own bunnies soon.  Great way to keep your hands off the bow as it cooled, chasing rabbits with the boys! 

[HickoryBill]

Looking good!!! You'll never forget your first 'sage bow!!!

[DEllis]

Thanks guys.
Well, got her bending pretty good today. The pics tell the story better than words I think.

[DEllis]

Right limb needed to bend some more.
Did some rasping and scraping and got it to low brace.

[DEllis]

That last pic was after some more rasping and scraping.......coming along Ok. Upper limb is too the right Bending a tic too much and I wanted to shorten it up a bit and get the handle slimmed down to flex a bit more. I was hoping to get it to flatten down better at the handle instead of the shallow gull wing shape it had. Decided to shorten the upper tip and took the handle a bit slimmer. Hemmed and hawed and still was unhappy with the setback in the handle, so I steamed and bent the handle straight and rasped and scraped till things looked better. This was the result.
63" NTN.  Drawing 67#@24 inches so far......need to slim the tips down and fine tune things things a bit as I work toward 26" I'll need to nudge the lower limb tip over a mite to get the string tracking better, but not too far to go now.
Any suggestions on the tiller? I think it is pretty close, but more experienced eyes may see something I don't. I need to get some paint or paper behind that tree to see the limbs more clearly against the wall .
Tomorrow if all goes well should be time to replace the wrap on nocks with some real grooves. One other question for the osage guys. If I just do simple self nocks with this weight(I am aiming for 70#) will they hold up if they are quite slim say 7/16 wide and about that deep or a hair more before I cut the grooves? This stuff sure seems plenty hard and strong and I'd rather not add overlays if I don't have too.......... I like this wood a lot........just gonna need to let it see some sunlight to get rid of the Tonka truck yellow 
Darcy

[Sidewinder]

Dude you are all over it. Good for you, just keep it up. Yeah osage is really good bow wood to work with. Its very forgiving bow wood and trust me I have needed LOTS of forgiveness. I look forward to seeing your finish.   danny

[DEllis]

Thanks Danny.
Darcy

[HatchA]

That's a damn impressive build-along and a beautiful looking bow in the making!!  As has been said - ain't Osage a great wood to work with?  So much draw weight out of such a slim bow...

Nice one!!

[Jboyd]

 What a great job, that has turned out great and I definitely love the bunnie shot!!

[DEllis]

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.
Did a bit more today. cleaned up the rasp marks and decided to shorten the lower limb a bit to balance the tiller out better. I like to have 1/8 to 1/4 inch more string to limb measurement on the upper limb compared to the lower. I have that now.......and it is bending pretty nice.
Cut the nocks and ended up 62"nock to nock.........tillered to 70#@24"so far but I am thinking it needs a few days of warmth to dry out a bit more before I finish tillering. It has taken a bit of string follow.......around 2 inches as soon as it is unstrung but bounces back to about an inch after a few minutes. I can live with 2 inches of follow but I get the feeling it could be a bit dryer still. I'll spend the next few days working on the cosmetics a bit plus some other stuff that needs done. Anybody have a good guess of how much string follow I should expect from osage at this weight and draw length?........max width is 1 3/8" midlimb is 1 1/4.  It bends just a tiny bit in the handle. Here're a couple pics. One sorta blurry of the top tip. Will take better pics when all is finished.
Thanks,
Darcy

[Pat B]

Darcy, she looks good. You could take a bit off of the inner 1/3 of the right limb. If that is the botton, not too much. 
  Very nicely done. When you are finished we expect a "hero" shot at full draw! 

[DEllis]

Thanks Pat, that is the top limb on the right. It has a bit of a reflexed spot right there that makes it look too flat. There is also a touch of propeller twist to complicate matters. I will be sure and post a full draw pic when I get'r done.
Darcy