Osage board d bow design?

[lauderw55]

Hi I am fairly new to bow making and have made a few self bows and board bows with great help from the site, so I figured I would ask another question. I have acquired some Osage boards that are 70" long, 2" wide and 5/8 inch thick. All my bows to This point have had a non working stiff handle and I wanted to try something different. I want to try and build a bendy handle bow like a Cherokee d bow design with these Osage boards. I have had trouble finding good starting point dimensions to go by. And I wanted to know if I could use this lumbar for this. One of my concerns is hat the lumber may be to thin and was thinking about using hickory backing strip to thicken that up? So if anyone could give me some starting dimension for this bow that would be great! Thanks for your time

[JW_Halverson]

I think you have enough meat to make the cut!  Double your draw length.  Now add two inches to that for a little extra safety margin.  Add another inch so that you have a half inch of limb out past the nock points.  Got it?  That's a good starting point.

I would go with inch and a half width at the center of the bow and taper to 3/4 inch wide at the tips.  You should be more than wide enough in the handle and may be able to start narrowing the handle some as you go from there. 

[lauderw55]

That is for the response! So would u back it with the 1/8 hickory backing strip?

[Stick Bender]

From the Cherokee artifact bows that I have seen the diementions on are for the war bow it was 72in  long ,1 9/16  wide and 5/8 in thick at the handle there hunting bows were like 61,62 long 1 3/8 wide  some where in there they where 9/16 thick at the handle if I recall right but those bows hade pretty wide tips. You didn't mention what kind of boards were they 1/4 sawn Etc ?

[lauderw55]

By the way I am shooting for 55lb at 26" draw. And I have heard terms such 1/4 saw before but not sure what that means. If you could describe what that means I could tel you. Thanks for the response

[bubby]

Flatsawn= quartersawn ||||| riftsawn ///
If you have good grained flatsawn you might be able to chaise a ring and then no need for backing, can you post pics of the grain

[JW_Halverson]

From the Cherokee artifact bows that I have seen the diementions on are for the war bow it was 72in  long ,1 9/16  wide and 5/8 in thick at the handle there hunting bows were like 61,62 long 1 3/8 wide  some where in there they where 9/16 thick at the handle if I recall right but those bows hade pretty wide tips. You didn't mention what kind of boards were they 1/4 sawn Etc ?

From the 5/8 depth of the board, I doubt he will be able to get much draw weight at that kind of length.  He would be forced to laminate at that point.

[Aaron H]

Personally I would get some bamboo and make a bamboo backed osage.

[Stick Bender]

I think he was looking to make a bendy handle , here is a pic to help you figure out what type of bords you have this is not my drawing it was posted by another member a while back I don't think he will mind ,like was said if you could post a pic of the board face it would help

[tattoo dave]

1/4 sawn boards don't NEED a backing if you ask me, but never hurts to add a backing. Plenty of wood there too to get 55#@26". I'm thinking with Osage, you could definitely get away with no backing.

Anyway, post some progress pics. We would love to see them. Good luck

Tattoo Dave

[lauderw55]

Thanks guys. From the information given here it is a 1/4 saw board. I probably am going to back it either with rawhide or a 1/8 thick hickory backing. My main concern is if it will have enough meat in the handle to handle that type of draw weight.

[paco664]

where did you get osage boards?

if you can't put that info here would you mind shooting me a PM with the info?  pretty please??

[John Scifres]

Is the grain straight?  Watch out for pins and little branched that are common in osage.  I don't think I have ever seen an osage board bow.

[lauderw55]

The grain is relatively straight and there seems not to be much of pins or knots in them. So should I keep the handle 1 1/2" wide for about 4-5 inches then start tapering them down to 3/4" at the tips? Would that be a good starting point

[bubby]

If it ia quartersawn and has pin knots I would back it, hiclory maple or boo