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Osage Recurve
BowMonk:
boil the tips...
no more than 5/8 thick...
like Pat says, use a band or metal strap clamped at the form and the limb, while bending so it will keep pressure on the belly side as not to raise splinters.
some people have success with heat guns... and i know how to use one... but, i recommend taking the sure safe route of boiling... btw... steaming never seems to get them soft enough to keep from raising a splinter or tearing the wood internally when doing static tips.use no less than a 1" radius on your form to bend around, and i would recommend 1.5" if it is your first try at static tips.
one tip i suggest is to make sure that the area to be bent is flat, with no irregularity to the surface of the belly side... and also, make sure that the thickness is the same on both sides of the limb throughout the area that will be bent. if you don't, it will resist more on one side and the tip will twist to the left or right when bending.
if by chance it does twist a little... and most times there is just a little... you can grease it with crisco and use a heat gun to heat the limb just below the static curve and twist it back into alignment.
sometimes i would keep with me cold water or even ice to put on it for a faster cooling after the adjustments are done, and it allows you to hold it in place by hand while icing it with the other. when it is cool to room temperature it will stay in place.
~Russell
Badger:
2" wide sounds pretty excessive for osage, what weight are you going for. At 60# I would say 1 1/2 would be extremely conservative. Osage is such a heavy wood it just wont handle wide limbs very well, Steve
George Tsoukalas:
Congratulations, Psycho! That's a lot of changes in your life. Thank God the are all good ones. Jawge
Psycho:
Thanks fellas,
Pat, I have always liked your recurves and have several in my photo library to reflect on. I do have a heat gun but I dont want to mess with splinters too much. I'm thinking I will go down to 5/8 before bending then take off a little more doing finish work. Thanks for reminding me about the metal strap along the belly while bending.
Thanks Bowmonk for the information on having a flat belly surface and it having to be equally thick across the bend area. A radius of 1 1/2" is certainly be enough for me. I have removed a twist from this piece before and will probably have to do it again. I think I will be cooking some osage.
Badger, thanks for the recommendation. I want to get as much weight as possible but I will be decreasing the width a little as I have noticed some curves in the grain that ran more curvy than I had previously noted and I also want to avoid splinters from this source.
Thanks again fellas.
Eliseo(Psycho)
Psycho:
Well here I am again. I read a lot of posts and see too many nice bows. Most of the time I only have time to look and admire the bows. Teenagers always wanting to get online. I went ahead and bent some curves. Got impatient and hurried and therefore forgot the metal band. Some spl;inters came up but I think I have enough wood left to remove them while working on the nocks. Here are some pictures.
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