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Character Osage Build - Now a Takedown - Finished!
gstoneberg:
Well, I put the bow on my tillering setup and 2 things were instantly apparent. One, is that I'm waay too heavy yet; and two, trying to pull the bow imposes a significant sideways torque on the handle. I've always used a loop of rope to hold the bow under a bow scale and that does not work with this one. I'm going to have to create a different attachment approach (which I should do anyway). I'm happy that the bow is still so heavy, I'll be able to take quite a bit off the limbs and make the bent part flow into the rest of the limb without a width change. I had the camera with me, but I didn't get enough bending to show any tiller yet so I didn't shoot new pictures.
George
gstoneberg:
Well, this bow intimidated me so bad I ignored it for a couple months. Tonight I finally sucked it up and began to work again. First I had to make a U-shaped clip to hold the bow on my bow scale for tillering without letting it twist. Then, I started taking off wood. The straight limb is normal tillering, the crooked limb is something totally different. It was doing all its bending in the crook, so I treated that like a hinge and haven't touched it. I took it very slow and at the end of the night I think it is bending enough to cut string nocks and make a string for it. I don't have the string running through the handle so I fired up the heat gun and bent the straight limb a little. In the morning I'll bend the other limb. I still have a long way to go, it pulls 45 lbs at roughly brace height. I didn't realize when I took the pictures that I wasn't pulling from the center of the bow. For the purpose of getting a string on the bow I don't think it matters. I think both limbs are too stiff in the tip, the crooked limb more than the straight limb. There's a knot just outbound of the crook that's making it tricky.
George
youngbowyer33:
wow great job so far, the tiller is coming a long nicely
gstoneberg:
Well, the bow broke today. I was afraid it might when I started and it did not disappoint. I had it tillered to about 26" so it was close. I was pulling it trying to see how it was bending through the crook when it went "bang". Interestingly, neither limb appeared to fail, it just got easier to draw. I felt the failure in the lower limb but didn't find a thing wrong down there. However, when I looked at the crook I discovered it had cracked clear through the bow, back to belly. The crack is about 6" long and nearly centered in the limb. It looks a little like a weather check when the bow is unstrung, but opens up when the bow is strung.
I did take one picture of it strung, but I didn't get any pictures drawing it.
I could glue the crack back shut and sinew back it, but my suspicion is that it wouldn't be that good a shooter and could still blow up in that crook. I'll probably order a set of sleeves, cut the bow just north of the handle and build another limb to match the still good lower limb. I have a sister stave to this one that is in the first picture of this build, it would be a good match.
George
youngbowyer33:
maybe just wrap it and glue it then make it a bow with short draw?
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