Author Topic: Osage Orange ELB  (Read 5622 times)

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Offline Lehtis

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Osage Orange ELB
« on: December 10, 2019, 09:10:36 am »
Greetings from Finland. Few weeks ago I quickly finished this bow because of just to have something to do. Iīve splitted this stave from an Osage Orange log bought from Hungary a couple of years ago. The stave was about 1" deflexed. I just removed the bark and then tried to follow the grain while sawing out the bow by band saw. I left the white sapwood untouched, like in yew bows, smoothed the back and rounded the corners before rounding the belly. Some tillering, nocks and arrow pass from some hard wood, several layers of TruOil, Dacron string and the bow was ready to shoot. After test shooting the bow has some 2" string follow (easy to string) and measures 75 lbs @ 28". The length is 72" ntn.

Offline Lehtis

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2019, 09:14:52 am »
Some more pics...

Offline Lehtis

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2019, 09:16:10 am »
...and some more...

Offline Del the cat

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    • Derek Hutchison Native Wood Self Bows
Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2019, 09:54:53 am »
Great job, some lovely character to that bow  :)
Del
Health warning, these posts may contain traces of nut.

Offline DC

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #4 on: December 10, 2019, 10:23:49 am »
Great job, some lovely character to that bow  :)
Del
+1 Does Osage sapwood age like the heartwood or does it stay light?

Offline Pat B

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #5 on: December 10, 2019, 10:42:18 am »
DC, I believe it stays relatively white.
Very nice osage ELB, Lethis. How do you like working osage?
Make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes!    Pat Brennan  Brevard, NC

Offline bradsmith2010

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #6 on: December 10, 2019, 10:45:56 am »
Congrats on Nice bow

Offline NonBacked

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2019, 11:13:02 am »
Looks like that was the first project on your new workbench. Good way to break-it-in! Great looking bow!

Offline dylanholderman

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2019, 11:17:15 am »
Great work  :OK
I love a Osage bow with the sapwood still on it.

Offline Lehtis

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #9 on: December 10, 2019, 11:26:11 pm »
Thanks, guys!
Pat B, I do like osage as quite easy wood to handle. Also it’s not irritating eyes and breathing like many tropical harwoods, especially bulletwood (massaranduba).
Next trial will be something similar but as take down bow (carriage bow), hopefully ready in January. If I’m lucky with that, it’ll travel with me to Northern Ireland in March to compete in European Indoor Championships.
« Last Edit: December 10, 2019, 11:31:06 pm by Lehtis »

Offline HH~

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #10 on: December 11, 2019, 04:26:40 am »
Looks like a shooter. Im surprised all the time how Osage limbs bows perform even ones that a mostly sapwood. Nice work and bow.

Shawn~
MAFA: Makin America Free Again

Long is the road, Hard is the way.

Mother Gue never raised such a foolish child. . . .

Readily will I display the intestinal fortitude required to fight onto the Ranger objective and complete the mission though I be the lone survivor. RLTW

Offline Lehtis

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #11 on: January 01, 2020, 08:56:31 am »
The story continues: This bow, originally sort of test project, has been shot few hundreds of arrows now. It worked fine but, because of plenty of deflex, it was lazy. Then I decided to continue and test my skills to convert it to takedown (carriage) bow. I glued 5 mm thick Osage slice on the handle back (10,5 cm), thinned the ends of the slice down to 1 mm and left the middle to 5 mm. After cutting the bow I fitted the take down sleeves and those slightly conical Osage pieces added some reflex at the handle area straightening the bow. Test shooting told that this added reflex also added plenty of pounds to the bow; at least I had to use more power to draw it to my anchor point compared to my other bows. Iīll measure the poundage later. Unfortunately I "succeeded" also to add some some bend to right, wrong direction for right handed shooting forcing the arrow pass too much left from center. Now the bow is clamped to table in my workshop until my next visit to my cottage to force the side bend away.
« Last Edit: January 01, 2020, 08:59:45 am by Lehtis »

Offline Hawkdancer

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #12 on: January 01, 2020, 01:36:03 pm »
Nice work!  Good luck with the conversion, and also at the Indoors shoot!
Hawkdancer
Life is far too serious to be taken that way!
Jerry

Offline Lehtis

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #13 on: January 07, 2020, 08:32:32 am »
An update to my Osage ELB conversion to TD. I picked up the bow from my cottage and after taking these photos I tested itīs strength. Straightening the deflex by installation of the TD sleeves the bow got over 10 pounds more being now 86 lbs @ 28". Itīs final strength will be seen tomorrow after shooting some tens of arrows. According to my earlier experience itīs tiller will change a bit also because of the drawing point while shooting is lower than the drawing point on tiller device. This makes the lower limb bend more in real duty and balances the tiller a bit.

Offline bradsmith2010

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Re: Osage Orange ELB
« Reply #14 on: January 07, 2020, 09:28:37 am »
Nice work,,,congrats,,beautiful bow