advice on osage billets

[timmyd]

i need some advice on these osage billets. they measure 38" long. what would be the best way to build these in your opinion? metal takedown sleeve...fiberglass socket....splicing? never worked billets before so just wondering what you all would do.

[sleek]

Those are very nice billets.  Either optioned you mentioned will work on those. Your choice bud.

[Bryce]

Splice em! Any type of toothy splice will work. Even a simple V splice. Just make sure the widest part(top and bottom) of the cut splice is slightly smaller that the total width you want your handle to be.
As far as take down sleeves. I won’t advocate for the metal sleeves. I don’t like the shape, the feeling of it in my hand. And that amount of weight in one spot is unappreciated by this shooter.most of the time they end up making a ticking sound when you shoot. You can spend an entire week trying to adjust and finesse it, but in the end it’s not worth it..... to me anyways. Still on occasion I get requests for em.

I would suggest the fiberglass method or even the carbon fiber wrap-up for a T/D

So, I vote splice! Either way, up to you man!

[Pat B]

Be sure to get your handle close to shape before cutting the splices or you'll end up loosing a lot of the splice when you do the final handle shaping.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Learn how to splice is my vote. You can get billets for a "song", most guys arent into billets or learning splicing. Its very simple. I prefer working on one 36" billet a time, much easier than handling 65-70" of full stave.

[Eric Krewson]

Straighten your billets first, put a centerline on them so you can line them up on you splices.

Draw the splices on a piece of paper and use elmers glue to glue it on your billet lined up with your centerline, cut just outside your drawn lines and glue up. Put one clamp in the center of your splice, align the limbs and add two more c clamps.

Splices rarely fit on the first try, put them together and hold the splice up to a light to see where they are binding, remove a little of the binding wood and they will slip right together.

I just noticed, one of the billets in the picture below has been spliced before so I am making a splice over a splice. These billets are for a BBO so the splice will be trapped on one side with bamboo and the other with a handle piece. I don't throw away scrap that I can turn into a bow so one of these limbs has been salvaged from a previous project.

[Eric Krewson]

I use a Z splice and make it 3 1/2" long so it will fit under the 4" handle leather. I always glue on a piece of wood to build up the handle so there is a lot of glue surface besides the splice.

I have glued up at least 100 sets of billets together and never had a failure with my 3 1/2" Z splice. I used Urac for most of them and Unibond or Smooth On now. I don't degrease anything prior to splicing and have spliced osage exclusively.

 

[Eric Krewson]

Another thing, I don't know if you have a bandsaw or belt sander, I do. I flatten the belly of the area to be spliced out past the fade on a belt sander then put the billet belly on my bandsaw table and sight down it to see if the limb is properly oriented and not leaning off to the side. I make sure my flattened area is aligned with the way I want the limb to go through the bandsaw. If my staves crown isn't at 12 o'clock I will adjust my flat place a little until it is. The flat place prevents any shimmy as you feed the billet into your saw.

If you have a little twist in your billet you can change the angle of the flat place to remove some of it when you cut your splice.

[DC]

Couple more things that can help. I use a 2 thou feeler gauge to check the fit. To get the surface flat and stable for bandsawing, I glue(5 min epoxy) a scrap piece of plywood to the belly of the handle area. You only need a couple of flat spots for the glue. You can make it as wide as you want for stability. I made a sanding stick with a sideways taper that will fit down in between the fingers. If you are going to deflex the splice, you should have the billet deflexed when you run it through the saw.
Pictures on request cause I really didn't explain this well 

[timmyd]

thanks all for the advice. I have a band saw and variety of Sanders ranging from 1" to 6". I have a lot of billet material so maybe I'll try couple different methods. I'll try the splice. how aggressive of a blade do you reccomend? the one I have on there now seems to really cut rough. would be hard to get a clean fit with it I think

[maitus]

You need clean fit, not clean surface . Rough surface makes better bond if to use epoxy.

[DC]

Another piece of advise is to buy an eight foot 1"x2". Cut it into 1" lengths and then splice it back together. You should be getting pretty good at it by the time you have a 4' board again.

[DC]

And if your fit isn't great, boil the ends, put it together and clamp tight. Let it dry with the clamps on. It will fit after that

[bradsmith2010]

I am getting ready to splice, thanks for all the info,,

[Eric Krewson]

I have a 3TPI skip tooth blade on my saw.