2013 Bow Trade Works In Progress

[Badly Bent]

Man all these bows are looking great, real nice work being done.

[hedgeapple]

I got mine bow for the trade to a long string.  I was hoping to get some work done on it today and tomorrow, but my back went out.  grr.

I have a potential problem with the stave.  It may or may not be an issue.  But I won't know until I get it bending better.  I decided to flip the tips a little nothing too drastic.  But, there was a small island run-off on the belly right where most of the bend would be.  I decided to remove that island.  It was screaming, "I'll lift a splitter!"  Now that one tip might be too thin for the rounded belly bow that I'd planned to make.  I've only made one other round belly bow.  It seems to be thicker than the flat belly bows I've made in the past that were my same draw weight/length.  ANY THOUGHTS?

My plan of action is to:
reduce the belly more, which it needs, then start tillering to see what happens.  If the recurve pulls out I'm thinking I could:
   a. shorten the bow.  not really wanting to shorten it as much I would need to do to remove the thin spot.
   b. use a long cow horn tip overlay to support the reflexed tips.
   c.  start another bow.
stave stats.
osage 1 1/4 width 60% out the tips then tapers.
64" t2t
target 26 @ 50-55
slightly bendy handle that is cut in to 1" width.

Help appreciated.

[steve b.]

Well it only took me 3 months to make half a bow.  I tried to get fancy with some character vinemaple and gave up after destroying the second one then switched to osage staves, the first of which was apparently cut from a tree by a blind guy with a chainsaw.  I ended up using that bow to test stain and rawhide techniques and moved on to this one.  After all of that I came in a few lbs. low anyway.  Other than that it came out pretty good but I was disappointed enough that I decided to throw in a bonus bow and a mystery gift for my trade recipient.

Ok, that's the sob story.  Here's the bows, a 65" and 66" osage and hickory.  The osage is just under 40 lbs. @27", partially backed with rawhide and a reddish stain, and exotic hardwood tips and zebra hair rest.  The hickory is just over 40 lbs. @27", parallel with trapped eges, charcoal/alcohol stain, oak heartwood tips, and my first ever cushion handle for a D-bow.  The poofy string silencers are llama and badger.

[steve b.]

[steve b.]

[blackhawk]

Start tillering n see what happens Dave...if not sounds like you have a lil bit of length to chop off if need be

Cool bends Steve

[lesken2011]

Two really sweet benders, Steve. I really like that red stained rawhide. What did you use to stain it with?

[steelslinger]

This is my ash bow I have been working on. The prop twist can make the tiller look different from side to side, so you get two pictures to critique my tiller. The bow is about 68" tip to tip.
The first pic has the bottom limb on the left, the second hat the bottom on the right.

[steelslinger]

anyone?

[Gus]

Whew Fellers,

There are some Fine Looking Bows shaping up this year...

Finally got back to work on the things that matter (Bows), after finishing up a bunch of work on things that don't (Most Everything Else)...

And ran into some issues with my Candidate "A" stave.
There are Several hurdles to overcome with this stave and I will sometime down the road.
But the bottom line is that I just wouldn't feel comfortable sending the bow made from this stave to my recipient.
Here is the biggest Issue in the first two shots, a Mean Check that is Wide and Deep. its only  a check on the back but a Problem on the Belly.




And a shot of the Backup Stave. A stave that George gifted me at Cross Plains Feb or March 2012.
Y'all have seen it before, and several of the Houston folks did some Ring Chasing learning on it last year or was it the year before?
At any rate it's at least two years seasoned and hard as Bone...
So it should have some Good Medicine.



-gus

[Carson (CMB)]

Those look nice Steve. 
Gus, looks like you just need some superglue.
Brad, what does your front profile look like?

[steelslinger]

Here is the front profile. It is 1.75 to mid limb tapering to 5/8 at the tips.

[okie64]

Looks like the Bottom limb needs to bend more Brad. I would get the outer limb bending a bit more on the bottom and maybe a tad on the upper limb too. With those parallel limbs I wouldnt get anymore bend in the inner limbs. How much weight do you have left to lose?

[steelslinger]

Ok that kind of what I thought after lookin at the pics for a while.  I am currently 1# over target.

[Gus]

Well Carson, you aren't too far off the Mark.

I'll need to do some patches before further progress is made with this stave.

The Tear Out and Check in the Handle takes up almost Half of the mass of the
Handle and extends down into to Belly. So that it will have to be filled,
Even if I go Bendy Handle.

And there are Four more Similar Tear Out and Checks to be dealt with out on the limbs.
The severity of these features didn't become apparent until I got the stave reduced down to
it's present dimensions.

And I ain't a gonna test my patching skill out on a Trade Bow...
And I want it to be Purty!



-gus