Inspired by Rodney Wright's Firehawk: Osage and Hickory setback/recurve

[radius]

Here is a new attempt for me.  I advise everybody to go to Youtube and type in "making a bow" .  You will find a 5 minute clip of Quebec bowyer Rodney Wright making a bow after which this one is patterned.

First pictures are of the form, and a piece of osage 3/8 thick in the form.  It was too thick, and cracked a bit.  I ended up ripping the piece in half, sawing the broken part away, cutting the other strip in half lengthwise, and sanding the inward ends of those two halves to taper down to almost nothing.





Here is the crude version of the handle inset.



Here it is after a little more work.



A few pictures of the dry run. 



Notice that the form itself does not include recurves.   To leave my options open, I just carried the line right through.  In this case, where I wanted to add recurves to the tips, I simply taped a block to each end.





The handle section.  This is rosewood.



Here is the whole thing wrapped and clamped.



And here is the handle section.  Hope it's good!




So, I used rosewood for the handle and used a couple thin pieces of it for tip accents, which can't be seen in these pictures.  I used to wonder why they called it rosewood.  Now, having cut some, I know. 

Is it just me, or does Osage smell like soap when you cut it?

Enjoy guys!

[Jesse]

very cool

[Dustybaer]

great idea.  thanks for taking the time.

[radius]

happy to take the time!

we'll keep ya posted!

[radius]

The firehawk is now out of the form.  I haven't done any work on it yet.  But here it is.






These handle pictures make the thing look like candy or ice cream.  I like the contrast between the osage and the rosewood.




And here's one just to show how ugly it really is!


Somebody give me some idea about tillering this thing...should I make it pyramid shaped?  or taper it down from mid-limb?  Or even, Run it wide most of the way, tapering only at the end?  Thanks.

[david w.]

wow thats very cool i am looking foward to this one

[radius]

me too!  thanks!

[radius]

Okay,

Got the firehawk cleaned up and tillered:  this is what it looks like:









I made a couple mistakes during construction which had the ultimate effect of bringing the draw weight way down.  This is both my finest achievement and my saddest failure to date, after about 40 or 50 bows.  It is easily the nicest thing I've made.  But I made the crucial mistake of making the riser 1/4 inch narrower than the limb material.  Since the riser extend into the limb quite a ways, I was forced to reduce the limb width accordingly.  The bow looks and feels good...and it shoots pretty fast and with good accuracy...but it is a dismal 30# at 28inches. 

Can I gain some weight by cutting an inch or so off each tip?  I don't have any sinew to back it with. 

The laminations are:

Hickory backing strip:  1/8"

Osage belly lam:  1/8"

Osage Core:  1/16"

Any ideas?

[radius]

Here is a full draw photo



Silhouettes are very artsy fartsy.

[radius]

I really like the look of the tips:  I added a tapered piece of rosewood into the tips, as the pictures show.   The effect is a slight stiffening and thickening which gives character to the shape.  I suppose in the long run they'll help prevent unfolding too.  There at full draw, the tips are still nicely retroflexed.   Now, if i can just get up the nerve to ask some farmer for some cowhorn, I'll be happening!

[radius]

[radius]

Cut the shelf in today, and cut an osage arrow pass to inlay, as well as rosewood tip overlays.  So far I am very pleased with the contrast of these two woods.  I will make another bow just like this one, only wider and therefore higher in draw weight.







Still need work on my inlay skills...but it's pretty close!

[radius]

FINISHED!

Today I cleaned it up, sanded it, shaped the tips and handle, and gave it a couple coats of tung oil.

Here is the handle, before and after oiling.





A shot of the full bow.  It's not the best picture, but you get the idea.  This is before oiling.



Here's a picture of the tips.  I really like that little sliver of rosewood.  Gives it beauty and character.



So there it is.  Full draw picture:  in silhouette!



And last but not least, a picture of my homemade thickness planer.  This fence doubles as a bandsaw fence for my hurting little ryobi 9" bandsaw.  If you use a rig like this for thickness planing, be careful to take off only 1/32 or maximum 1/16 at a time, and GO SLOW!  And be sure to keep a good grip on the material



Thank you Rodney Wright!  I've already started work on another one of these.  It's going to be an exact duplicate, but wider, and so it will be stronger.  This one finished out at 32# at 28 inches.  But it shoots nice and straight, and pretty fast due to its profile.

[radius]

WEll, I contacted Rodney Wright, and asked him to check it out.  Got the approval, but he did tell me that the bow I was copying was not his firehawk but another, similar bow he calls "Buffalo Stick".

He lives in Quebec, which is probably as far from here as Mexico...

Guess he won't mind!

[radius]

Added one more piece to the back of the handle, for comfort...