OK - Onward and upward (I hope). Mike and I were finally able to get together at his shop again, yesterday afternoon. the plan of the day was to take belly wood off the limbs of my Osage self bow to try to get the limbs bending for a suitable floor tiller. I used my draw knife but more often as a scraper than as a draw knife. I was haveing to be careful that I paid attention to following the caracter "whoopties", in regards to consistant thickness. It was a good feeling to find myself becoming more and more comfortable with this process as I progressed. a most enjoyable and productive 4-5 hours. We did get satisfactory floor tiller on both limbs but the bottom limb can stand a little more thickness removal in a couple places before we move on to tree tillering. Baisically just refinement though.
Working it out - first (presumably upper) limb:
Bow switched around in vise to start on second limb:
A pic down the length of the first limb, after floor tillering:
This pic taken at some point during the floor tillering. I couldn't bend it quite as well as Mike could when he tried it. He figured we are probably at about 60 - 65# ... (at about 20" - LOL) but that's down qite a bit from 100 plus. It's looking more like a bow at every stage.
At the end of the floor tillering of both limbs (and the session) I could feel the difference real well and also that both limbs were bending in nice, relatively even curves. We are seeing now that we will have to induce a little more reflex into one of the limbs at some point soon.
After my last sessions posting, one of the folks watching along asked me what stats we were shooting for. I had to admit that, not having a memory for figures and facts, I would have to write them down at the next (this) session. I did that but please remember it's all pretty much only figures to me. I am not into "bow design" (yet anyway, and maybe never - LOL), so don't nail me to the barn door. However for those who like, or can visulize better with, facts and figures. Here is what we are shooting "more or less" towards (depending on "It" being in agreement).
A Sort of Plains/NA Flat Style bow (w/character) 4" Handle (so C bow), w/ about 1 1/2" fades. Limbs are 1 3/8" wide at the fades and tips will be under 5/16" (or close) wide at finish. Most of the width taper will take place in the outer third of the limbs. Tip to tip length is 60 3/4". That's about "It" (the name of the bow - so far because I think it will be - LOL). Thanks for looking.
