Black Snake Bow

[GregB]

Osage bow 65" ntn, 1-1/2" wide to mid limb to 3/8" tips. 47#@26" Buffalo horn tips with black snake skins.

This bow was obviously inspired by Gordon's beautiful examples of dyed bows he's made. I made this bow for one of my brothers. I had given him one of my early bows, and since then he's had shoulder surgery and can't handle the draw weight anymore. He recently asked me to make him another lighter weight bow. I tried to take my time on the finish work of this bow, but to be completely honest I'm dissatisfied with how the snake skins turned out.

The stave had a worm hole through one limb which was packed with osage dust and tbIII. The handle area had some checking and missing wood, causing me to build the handle up with leather. Grant (CastIron or more recently Ironpot) threatened to use the stave to cook brats with in the early stages. I was tempted because I like brats, but we used hickory for that instead.
I backed the bow with deerhide as added insurance against the worm hole through the limb. When I put the wet snake skins on, I wrapped them too tightly leaving an impression after drying of the ace bandage. Having the soft deer hide underneath contributed, and I had never put snake skins over hide before...hard learning lesson. I wanted to pass on this error so others hopefully won't make the same mistake I did. The pictures don't really show this flaw.

I'm please with the dye outcome for my first attempt, and will incorporate it into some future bows I'm sure. Again, thanks to Gordon for his build-along! Oh yeah, the bow shoots great...I'll take it if my brother doesn't want it.

Hope yall like it, Greg

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[GregB]

Here's some more pic's!

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[Wolf Watcher]

Wow!!  That bow is drop dead gorgous!  Watcher

[Pat B]

She's a beauty Greg. Tiller is right on too. Hope to get a close up view at the Classic.     Pat

[DanaM]

Greg I merged your two topics hope ya don't mind eh.
I like the bow a lot Greg, glad to see some snake skins that aren't rattler, and they go with the dye job quite nicely.
47#@26" is perfect BTW

[GregB]

Thank you for the kind comment Wolf Watcher. Appreciate it Pat! If my brother hasn't taken it over yet, I'll try and have it there. Dana thanks alot for merging the two, I was hoping one of you kind moderators would do that! Thanks Dana for the comments!

[Canerod]

Love the color scheme and the tiller looks dead on!

[Dustybaer]

wow, greg.  the dye job is to die for    do you mind going into a little more detail on what you used and how you got those effects, especially at the fades?  she's absolutely beautiful.  by the way, nice quiver 'n arras there 

[Hillbilly]

Wow, Greg-that's a greeeeaaaatt looking bow-awesome all around.  You did a lot better job on the dye than my attempt at the same sceme:

[TRACY]

I think it is a great bow Greg. I saw it in Pappy's pic in "Life is Good" earlier and he said you were gonna post it in bows later. I am also putting black rat snake skins on a snakey osage but won't be as pretty as your dyed bow. Wow, I thought I was liking the black/ yellow contrast of my bow until I saw this. Do you guys wrap all backings with ace bandage like in Pappy's pics?

[AndrewS]

Greg you build a absolutly nice bow, congrats!

[Justin Snyder]

Nice dye job Greg,  I must say you are a quick learner on that.  How about some close ups of the flaws, because I sure don't see them.  Justin

[330bull]

You just shattered the dreams of an other BOM contender for April.   

Gorgeous!

[GregB]

Hey everyone, I really do appreciate the kind remarks!

Marius, the quiver belongs to Marks son Beau. I "borrowed" it to hopefully enhance a few of the pictures. I read over Gordons build along a couple of times before I started the dye work. I first put on the oxblood red dye going beyond where I actually intended to fade the two together. Make sure to wipe off the excess dye with a fine cloth before it has a chance to dry. I let the oxblood totally dry prior to adding the black dye. Where I wanted it solid black, I applied dye to that area first and stopped the edge just prior to where I wanted to fade the two together. I then took a fine cloth dipped in acetone (wrung out, not dripping)and very lightly pulled from the still undried black and attempted to blend it into the oxblood red. It takes a light touch, but the acetone is the key I think to getting the faded affect. Laquer thinner might would work the same as the acetone.

Thanks Hillbilly, I like your bow too though! 

Tracy, yes we've always wrapped snake skins with ace bandages. It probably isn't absolutely necessary, but I think it helps ensure the skins adhere well along the edges. But there is obviously risk involved at least when using a hide underneath as this bow has. This was the first time I'd used hide underneath the snake skin. When you have only the hard surface of the wood I haven't in the past had a problem with the ace bandages showing an impression.

Thanks Canerod, looks like Hillbilly had the idea before me!

Thanks Justin, Pappy says I'm to hard on myself in critiquing my work. I really wanted this one to turn out well just to show that wood with some cosmetic issues can still make a nice bow. Messing up on the snake skins was something I couldn't fix short of removing the skins. They were both road kills and took all last summer to come up with them. One was messed up forcing me to stop short of full length on the limbs. I had caught a large black snake last fall, and couldn't bring myself to use it...I let it go.   I'll have to get with Pappy to take more pictures...as he has said before, I'm "to tight to buy a digital camera!".

Don't give up on your BOM dreams Joe! So many nice bows get posted now it seems that it's a coin toss who might win. Makes it pretty sweet I would think if you do win, considering the great competition being displayed.

[cowboy]

That is an absolute all around beauty Greg! I almost thought that back was painted, but had a feelin it was snakeskins. The one and only time I used snakes, I kept working them out from head to tail (making sure all the bubbles were out) by the time I did that a few times, the tbIII was set up pretty good - so I left it without a wrap, didn't curl up at all. I wasn't too impressed with how the pattern was too dark on it either. I died the back dark brown before the skins, next time I'm going to leave it lighter - kinda like a skint snake, pinkish .