Character staves and some thoughts...

[Lee Slikkers]

OK, been doing a lot of reading on the threads here (George's Trade bow...cutting Osage, older threads on Lilac character staves, etc.) and I'm starting to struggle mentally with the ideas.  On the one hand most of us like a nice perfectly straight stave while others love the character with the more twist and bends the better.  Now, I've seen some folks take those twisted sticks and use all methods of heat, steam, etc to straighten and bend them to an almost perfect bow blank.  When in your mind do you look at a stave and say "This is twisted perfect and I'm hardly going to change it, heat it, etc" unless it's for the basic purposes of string/tip/handle alignment and when do you decide to just make it as stick straight as you can?

Here is a good example...I figured I'd give the ERC a rest and try my hand at another Osage since its a bit more stout  and I figured I'd try a nice straight piece for a change.


(Pardon the mess in the background of these shots...was trying to find natural light since the flash was washing the pics out in the Dungeon)

As you can see there is a little twist...the tips actually have perfectly reversed bends that balance themselves out and even with no heating the string cross just a hair off center at the arrow pass.


A touch of natural reflex as well...


Tips have some wicked twists and bends to play with too.








So...where does this leave me?  Not really sure to be honest...

Thoughts?

[fishfinder401]

it leaves you getting it ready to ship to me
that will make a nice bow, i personally think it looks fine the way it is
noel

[JW_Halverson]

Me likey plenty.

[George Tsoukalas]

I'll heat to get the string on the handle. I'll also heat if one limb is reflexed and the other deflexed so as to reflex the deflexed limb. That is about it. Jawge

[Pat B]

You won't really be able to tell anything until you get to low brace.   Start tillering the bow. You may have to clamp it to the tiller tree until you get to low brace.   I do think I'd get the string over the handle first though with a bit of dry heat, a 2x4 and a few clamps.

[Gordon]

Not all character is created equal. Limb undulations that go side to side look cool but are fairly straight forward to deal with. Undulations in the limb that are perpendicular to the back/belly are more challenging, but if you maintain an even thickness taper are quite manageable. Throw in some knots, twist and crown irregularities and things start to get really interesting.

[Stiks-N-Strings]

I'm with these guys. I'll heat to line up the string on the handle and maybe take out a little twist and add reflex. other than that I leave it like it grew.

 Line your tips up with your handle and tiller her out. Good looking piece of osage right there.

 Stiks

[johnston]

What Stix said....

Lane

[Del the cat]

It's all down to what you want, like any engineering project. The outcome will can only be as good as the specification.
You specify what you want, unless you have a 'customer'
Do you want max performance in terms of speed, smoothness or maybe you want max weirdness or maybe just max fun.
It's all down to you, of course most staves are some sort of compromise.
You may just say I want the best possible bow from this stave, but unless you specify what you mean by 'best' it is meaningless.
Personally I would go for best speed/shootability even if it means straightening, unless a stave is absolutely crying out to be a character bow!
In which case I'd go for max weirdness and beauty and not really worry how well it shoots (ok it's gotta actually throw an arrow, but it becomes a sculpture rather than a working bow...(IMO)
Of course engineering and beauty often go hand in hand...if it looks right it probably is right.
I shall sumarize by saying you should stop thinkin' and a worryin' and get back to makin' bows
Del

[gstoneberg]

I like that stave!  It's a good thing when you have a stave with overall gentle reflex, some character, and the string goes through the handle.  Make a bow from that one Lee.  I do the same thing as everybody else.  Make the string go through the handle first and then build the bow.  You can change it as much or as little as you want.  I think less is better as a rule.  Good luck.

George

[Pappy]

I use heat/steam to get the handle to line up and usually try and get as many humps in the back
out as I can do reasonably. I also will try and get any propeller out,I don't conceder propeller character.I never try and take the snake out unless there is a good reason for it.  Good looking piece of wood,Should make a fine looking bow.
   Pappy

[crooketarrow]

   As long as the string go's through the handle then it's lined up with the tips. As long as your tillers arched right it dosn't matter about the out side curves. If its off the handle a little I'll turn the stave so i that the bow to the side so it will be more center shot. I 've build quite a few character bows and as long as it's tillered correctly there just find. I

[Lee Slikkers]

Great read guys, it's pretty interesting to read others take and thoughts on what they like in a stick and what they leave in vs try removing.  I am sure this piece will be pretty straight forward in regards to getting the tips and handle lined up.  Pappy brought up a good point and one I was probably trying to digest and that was prop twist.  This one has a fair amount of prop twist, more than I'd like to deal with so I will have to take a look at addressing that issue.

For fixing prop twist do most folks prefer and use a caul and clamps or is the method George employed i.e. bow in vise with a clamp and weighted bucket off to the twisted side while adding heat?

Thanks a ton for all the feedback and opinions guys...they have helped a lot.

[blackhawk]

If its real minor prop twist then I just use the caul and most of it will come out,just place your clamp to the offending side. If its more then ill twist it with heat and make sure to go a lil past cus some of it will releive its self back.

[gstoneberg]

Lee, I doubt my bending techniques really should be emulated as they're pretty rudimentary.  My first few I used a long bar clamp and just pushed down on the bar until I thought it looked right.  The bucket approach is a perfect example of the old proverb..."laziness is the mother of invention..."  I'm sure there are so many better ways.  I still can't bend a limb sideways very well.  I did make my first caul this week so I expect you'll see it in future pictures from me.  I would check out PatB's bending setup, very very nice results.

George