1937 Chester Stevenson take-down Osage Static Recurve.

[Blacktail]

now that is oregon history..thanks for sharing...john

[Shaun]

Great bow! Thanks for taking time to take the pics and share. The book is a good read too with one of my favorite quotes, "We made our heavy bows heavy, and our broadheads broad."

Brad Merkel made several osage recurves inspired by Chester Stevenson's work. I am proud to have one of Brad's. It is a serious fast shooter and will hang by the recurve on a limb even when braced.

[tom sawyer]

I seriously doubt that Stevenson underbuilt a bow or worked with what he had.  Those old bowyers had access to good materials.  The set in the bow could've been from extended stringing although many of the static recurves I've seen have this kind of set.

Shaun does your Merkel static have set in the limbs?  How far forward are the tips right after unstringing?

I've shot a few statics, its great to feel the increase in leverage when the string lifts off the tips.  As far as building one, I don't think you need to curve the tips more than necessary to have the string sitting snugly on them at brace.  Of course you'd better account for the set you're inevitably going to get.

I recall trying a static tip once, the bending was a challenge and the worst part was getting the tips exactly straight.  In fact mine wanted to lean and the string slipped off and broke the bow.  I haven't got around to trying it again.

[blackhawk]

I gaurantee that the majority of the set in the limbs is due to an underbuilt bow. I've built enough high stressed designs to know from experience that a bow that's 56" ntn,has a high draw weight at a 28" draw,and only 1 inch wide thru 19" of working limbs is going to take on 3" of loss in set everytime if not more pending who tillers it. I don't care if you have the best piece of osage that ever was and if you were the best bowyer to ever walk this earth,you are going to incur lots of set with that design. Yeah,you will have a bow and it'll survive and shoot a long time cus its osage,but you will incur lots of set. The good osage we get today is just as good as the osage they had,no different. If no one believes me then go ahead and copy it and start with dead straight working limbs and see what happens.

I'm not trying to bash Mr. Stevenson,just stating the facts of this particular bow. And they built there bows with different intents than we do today.

[tom sawyer]

It said the limbs were slightly wider than an inch in the working area.  Since Stevenson is a master bowyer I'll just say that for him that design was not overbuilt or he wouldn't have made the bow.  And for heavens sakes the bow is 75 years old, who knows what the original side profile was and how long it kept it.

I've seen some things done with osage that I didn't think were possible.  We all come to our conclusions based on our own experiences but sometimes we're surprised.

[George Tsoukalas]

It is a beauty and definitely part of archery history. Jawge

[Hamish]

Fancy bow, in excellent condition, worth several thousand dollars. Chester preferred the shorter bow for hunting, and I'd say he was getting the most out of the stave as he could. Yeah it is deflexed, in the inner limbs, most likely due to set rather than being induced pre tiller.   It still has an overall slight reflex, and would be a good accurate bow for hunting.
I tend to agree with Blackhawk, in that if you tried a replica, you would likely need reflexed as well as recurved limbs to end up with that final profile with 1" limbs.
Not necessarily underbuilt, but definitely built by a bowyer who knew what he was doing and could get the best out of a stave. Anyone who has seen Chester's bows knows he was a master.
 Hamish.

[Carson (CMB)]

Here is a particular photo of Chet's den that shows some of his short osage recurves. Looks like most have similar set, though one or two appear straight through the limbs.  hey, set happens man.        Another PA t-shirt right there:  Set Happens.
Not sure if Chet had a 28" draw or not.  He looks shorter than average based on photos with others. 

[George Tsoukalas]

Set happens! Hey I want royalties on that t shirt. May be Mr Stevenson wanted a short bow for ambush. Anyway, I don't think I'd go up to him and tell him is bow is too short and under built.  Jawge

[tom sawyer]

Thanks for showing that photo, I had surfed the web to see what kind of setback was typical in the Stevenson and Grumley statics and wasn't finding much.  Looks like this one has a little more set than some on his wall.  I think a static with tips at the handle would perform quite well, better than a straight stave longbow.  Wonder how many of those bows are still alive?  I'd love to have that many bows hanging on the wall.

[PEARL DRUMS]

tom sawyer - "I'd love to have that many bows hanging on the wall."

Its a good feeling and nice when you find the right person to gift one to.

[snag]

Where Chet and his buddies hunted here in Oregon is brushy in a lot of places. Plus they did cover some miles during a hunt. I think the shorter bow lended itself to this type of terrain and travel. He also would take the stage up the McKenzie to the end of the road and then take off through the wilderness. Probably was easier to take on the stage instead of having to hold a longbow out the window...? haha  Look at all those bows. He must have been very skilled to make that many fine bows. Wow. Many of these bows are alive and well.

[PatM]

Anyone still have the bug to replicate this bow? Sorry to Lazarus the thread if not. I don't think anyone will complain though.

 PS I don't even necessarily mean the exact materials or the take-down option.

[sleek]

Im bored..... why not? I even have a set of sleeves. Though if I build it I will intentionally put in the deflex with heat to minimize reduced performance caused by set.  ( I believe that helps hysteresis but I'm willing to learn otherwise )

[sleek]

Just got done hand sawing a 29" section off a 90" log. I will split it tomorrow into two billets. not exactly sure how wide to make them but Im reckoning 1 1/4 inch to start with then go from there. My sleeve is too big so I may make my own sleeve in machine shop later when the time for that comes. I wasn't going to rawhide back it but looking at how nice that backing looks I think I will. I happen to have a nice set of goat raw hide strips perfect for the job.