This story starts in 1996 and makes a wonderful full circle for me. I was in high school and I was totally obsessed with making bows, but I had no access to any worthwhile bow wood. A kind gentleman (Gary Hutchison) at the local archery range was an experienced and talented bowyer, and he invited me to come with him to Kansas in the summer of 1996 to collect some osage. My parents were good enough to let me go and we cut a bunch of logs and took them home in his horse trailer. I made two excellent bows in 1997 after the staves had dried enough to be useful, and I kept the rest in the rafters of the garage at my moms house. Then I went to college, grad school, got married, had three kids, and am now mid-career at work. Its been 24 years since I cut the wood and a few pieces remained.
I took one out earlier this year. It was a limb and not a trunk, and it was over 30 rings to the inch and fairly wavy....following a ring on the back was going to be near impossible, and the piece was only 52" long since it was a limb split. I decided to make a BBO and flattened the back. The stave had taken about 3" of natural reflex over the years. I glued on a nice piece of bamboo using TB3 and didn't add any extra reflex since it already had some. To my surprise and delight, the bow came out extremely well and it shoots nicely and draws a full 27". Definitely the shortest bow I have made that is full-draw. I'm so happy that this special wood made a bow. I can't quite explain how special that wood is to me since it launched my life as a bowyer and its a big part of who I am. I have two pieces of that same tree left. The bow pulls 54#@26" and I plan on using it for groundblind hunting and stalking. I dyed the bamboo with latigo leather dye before finishing and I like the contrast. The grip is tanned deer hide.
Matt
