Osage Static Recurve Build-Along - FINISHED PICS!

[4est Trekker]

Hey, all.  Here's a little follow-along on my latest project, an osage static recurve.  My target is 50# @28". (Actually, 50# and some change at 28" and some change, but who's counting?) Here's the stave I chose.  I cut it a couple of years ago from a nice little honey-hole in southwest Iowa.

 

 

I decided on nearly straight taper for the sides, and a very slight, even taper for the belly.  I measure this out by dividing each limb into equal parts, marking the width/thickness at each point, and then connecting the dots.  Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of that process.

I like to tiller the bow out to about 24" before I heat any reflex into it or recurve the tips.  Here a couple pictures of the bow at brace and drawn to 22" on the tree:

 

 


At this point I heated in about 2" of reflex and straightened the stave out a bit.  Again, sorry...no pictures of that part either.

Next I recurved the tips. I tapered the last 7" of each tip, then glued up a series of laminations to complete the curve.  Here's a picture of the jigs I used for that process, complete with some prebent maple backing strips.  The jigs are identical, as they were held together with double sided tape while shaping.  With two forms, I can prebend the laminations 4 at a time (2 on each jig) using dry heat.  I also prebend the tips of the bow.   

 


End of round 1... 

[4est Trekker]

After the long process of preparing the rosewood/osage lams and the limb tips, here's the result.  Kind of wacky, but it'll get dressed up in the end with some nice laminated brush knocks a la Nels Grumley.  I used Urac 185 for all the laminations.

   

   

   


After a little tweaking of both the alignment (using dry heat, but avoiding the laminations!) and the tiller, here's where I'm at.  The bottom (i.e stronger) limb is on the right.  It's pulling about 45#@24", so I'm in the ballpark to hit my target weight/draw.  It's currently 63" ntn.  Now comes the agonizing last four inches!           If all goes according to plan, I'll dress the bow out with brush nocks and a nice set of rattler skins. 

   

   


Here's a shot of the bow at rest just after shooting about 50 arrows through it a short draw.

   


End of round 2...more to come!

[n2huntn]

Looking good,always enjoy your work.

[gstoneberg]

I love those laminated recurves.  Looking great!

George

[ErictheViking]

sweet bow 4est. ggod job on the laminations

[soy]

Looking forward to the rest of the process, awsome job so far

[druid]

Excellent buildalong!!!!!!!

[4est Trekker]

I've got the bow tillered back out to 27" and have been shooting it quite a bit.  It's pulling right at 50# and flat-launches an arrow.  I got the handle roughed in as shown below.  I would have liked to have done a more Hill-like grip with a slight dish, but the stave simply didn't allow due to a suspect area I wanted to avoid when laying out the fades.  That area turned out to be nothing, but I avoided it nonethless.  As such, my handle area is shorter than usual.  However, it turned out to be a good thing because it gave me a touch more working limb.








After about two hours of tedious work, I got both limb tips laminated with alternations of osage and rosewood in preparation for the brush nocks.  This process is slightly more enjoyable than watching paint dry.      However, it'll be worth it in the end.  For those that may be wondering, "Doesn't that extra mass at the tips create handshock and slow the arrow down?" Theoretically, perhaps.  But I've never noticed a difference.  I love the way they shoot, look, and function (i.e. keeping brush from snagging between the limb and the string).  If it's good enough for Nels Grumley and his cohorts, it's good enough for me.




End of round 3... 

[swtchbckshtr]

very nice work, looks real nice...

[Bow Nut]

very cool nice looking bows good job

[toomanyknots]

That is absolutely my favorite handle style of all time period. I love the way it looks and feels in the hand. Wicked wicked nocks.

[4est Trekker]

Well, I'm up to roughly 35 hours on this bow now and it's coming along nicely. It's tillered and fairly shot in to 28", holding its profile nicely, and is sporting some new nocks. 

Because I'm a weakling, I generally have my cousin shoot in a bow while I observe from the side. He's always quite eager to help!  Anyway, here's a full draw shot at 28".  It's  a little awkward, as he was shooting from his knees in his basement because of the 115 degree heat index outside!  BLAH!




Here's what the profile looked like immediately after shooting and unstringing:



Here's a few shots of the brush nocks, which are set up with double nocks for stringing.  I've got some tweaking to do on them yet, but they're getting there:









End of round 4...getting closer!

[Pat B]

Curt, you build a beautiful, well tillered bow but it's your eye for detail that really sets them off! I love this style bow for historical and practical value and you definately do it justice! 

[Gordon]

Wow, very nice!

[blackhawk]

Good idea getting someone else to shoot it in,as you said you can stand off to the side and see the whole shot process. Plus it looks like ya get to spend some time with a fam member. Double bonus.

Are you gonna call it bumble bee. The lam curves looks like the coloration of a bee. I wouldn't wanna get stung with that one. Excellent bow n bend. Perfectly executed.