Working on a coffee tree bow.

[Poggins]

I needHelp with a coffee tree stave.
I cut a coffee bean tree at the first of July and got four staves from it , I've worked osage mostly and haven't had any luck with a chittam wood bow I worked on before ( I have another one ready to tiller and may back it ).
I got one stave cut down to 64" ttt , one inch thick on the limbs by two inches wide a four inch handle
1 3/4" fades with the limbs thick enough to go longer if needed , I have a 25" draw length so I'm sure I have plenty of length . The sapwood is 3/8" thick and there is two pin knots four inches from one end with a gap of about half an inch between them .
With only four staves I thought it wise to ask for a little help with what design works with this wood ( probably should have asked before cutting the first one out ) , couldn't find much info on weather or not the sapwood was taken down or not.
I cut this one out and worked on two osage staves some , one with a hole in one limb and one will be a bendy handle , after the last two months I'm getting back in the groove slowly .

[briarjumper12]

I have no idea about that wood specifically, but them sure are pertty staves!

[wood_bandit99]

I have never worked that wood specifically, but I have heard people leave the sapwood on and I would say for a regular longbow 1.75-2". Unless u make the bow short I would go with 1.75 keeping it thick quite a ways. Heat treating is probably a good idea. Bendy handle I would do 1.25" to 1.5" and taper very slow keeping thickness for a while.

[TRACY]

Keep it on the wider side, closer to 2" at the fades with a slow taper to the tips 7/16-1/2". It is a lighter wood but will make a shooter for sure. Good luck!

Tracy

[Poggins]

Thanks Tracy , 7/16 at the tips will help get between the pin knots .
Knew I would get an answer on here , I'll post pics of my progress as I work on it , maybe this will help someone down the road also .

[Joec123able]

Those little things are hardly knots I wouldn't even worry about them At all my one and only walnut bow has those on it and i dropped the bow on the concrete and smooshed a few of them flat it didnt hurt it though still shoots fine id just treat them as if they didn't exist

[okie64]

Twistedlimbs has made some coffeetree bows. You might try shootin him a pm. Keep us posted on how this one goes, I have a few coffeetrees that I have been thinkin bout cutting down.

[Poggins]

I took one of the scrap peaces from the side and made one limb of a bow from it , it was very narrow , about an inch and a quarter narrowing down to quarter of an inch . I worked it down to where it was bending even , expecting it to blow I used a long string and with the single limb fastened solid I ran the string to pull at about the same as it would on a full bow . I pulled the limb until it gave , instead of blowing it crushed the belly wood and folded over , the back did break but only after I pulled it past the point of crushing the belly. The test showed that I may have to heat treat the belly , I've read somewhere that when heated the belly turns darker , almost purple .
If it's not raining after work tomorrow I'll work on the bow some more , remark my centerline and mark the bow out and try to get it to floor tiller .

[autologus]

Keep the limbs a little wide, 1 3/4 to 2" and heat treat.  Keeping them wide and heat treating will prevent set, you can leave the sap wood on the one I made worked just fine with it on.  I found it easy wood to work with and it smelled good when heated.

Grady

[Poggins]

I worked on the stave today after work , with a rainstorm on its way and the Mosquitos I didn't get to bending yet.
I started at two inches at the fades and tapered down to half an inch at the tips , I'm still just over three quarters of an inch thick the full length of the limbs , still not starting to bend yet .
The pics aren't very good , I'll try to get better ones next time .

[Poggins]

We had a little grass fire yesterday so I didn't get to work on the stave much , I took the drawknife to the belly and got it down to 3/4" thick and it's starting to bend now .
I need to get a sanding block out and work the saw marks off the sides and narrow the tips a little more , I'm leaving the handle alone for now until I get it close on the tiller ( one of the guys at work is retiering and I may give it to him , if so it will be left handed and 45# at 27" ) . I will try to get more pics today or tomorrow , I did a little heat treating on the scrap peace and it does turn purple .

[Poggins]

I haven't quit or broken the now yet ( it looks more like a bow now ) , I've got the handle and fades cut out and the bow is bending on the long string . I'm taking one sapwood ring off the back right now , it was pulling close to 45# at brace and I'm running out of heartwood ( down to about two rings ) and I want to keep some for when I heat treat .
I'll post some pics when I get a chance , it got dark on me last night .

[skarhand]

Looks pretty cool, I'm excited to see how it turns out. On a side note, I have seen a work benche that looks just like yours on an episode of CSI.

[bubby]

for a little inspiration http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,18322.0.html

[The Gopher]

Bubby, before I even clicked on your link I knew exactly what bow it was going to be, one of my all time favorites.