Author Topic: Help with new bow (Read 21778 times)

iowabow · « **on:** November 03, 2011, 10:38:56 am »

I am working on chasing rings on the wood and find the rings are forming a valley. I took a photo and used a flashlight to help show the hill tops and valleys. My question is will a u shaped back be a problem? Will I been doing something special to make this work.

johnston · « **Reply #1 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:02:47 am »

I have no ring chasing experience but I am reading Pappy's "Life is Good" thread which as you probably know is a chronicle of life at Twin Oaks.
Most pictured bows have the approximate shape of a roller coaster and are snakey when viewed in the vertical, horizontal, oblique and peripheral.
In fact, Pappy and the guys use all the straight wood for the cooking fire.

Your bow is just fine.

Lane

blackhawk · « **Reply #2 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:08:24 am »

Goodness gracious...how wide is that stave? That's pretty wide to be chasing a ring for one bow. I like to get my bow laid out rough front profile shaped before I chase my final ring so its less wood to remove and chase.

Back to your question some folks call and term this "riding the rails", because all your tension is on the sides of the bow. Depending on how severe it is,I've seen guys like Gary Davis fill them in with sinew to move the tension back over center of the bows back. I wood reduce your front profile first and then see how bad it is. A lil bit wont hurt it if its osage(which looks like it is)and you might be able to let it be. Its hard to tell from the pics how deep the valley is.

iowabow · « **Reply #3 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:20:22 am »

Ok I am concerned about the cross section I have made 7 or 8 bows and this is the first piece of wood to present this question. In the new photo I drew A and B. Part of the limb is like B with a concave back. I was wondering if this was going to be a problem.

iowabow · « **Reply #4 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:27:30 am »

Ok good info blackhawk. I am kinda new so I did not want to lock myself in by reducing the stave before I knew what was below but I see your point. It is a lot of work to remove so much wood.

blackhawk · « **Reply #5 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:33:08 am »

Once you remove the bark and the sapwood,you then can generally see the grain good enough to lay out a little fatter than needed front profile,and then reduce your width then chase the ring. That valley will get shallower when you narrow it.

Oh...and im not sure what's a safe enough depth to leave alone,but if you put a straight edge across the valley(after you narrow it to bow profile) and measure down and if its deeper than an 1/8", then id fill it in with sinew until the sinew is higher than the edges.

I've left 1/16" valleys on a couple of mine and there fine. Its not too uncommon to encounter this with osage.

Pappy · « **Reply #6 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:46:02 am »

I just use a french scraper to get to the ring in the valley,narrowing it is good also if you are really sure you have followed the longitudinal grain,especially is a snaky
piece like that.Also when you are tillering if you have the valley you will need to leave the belly slightly rounded to make sure the limb stays the same thickness
through out.If you keep the belly flat any where there is a concave in the back the limb will be thinner and all the work will just be on the rails. Is that stave wide enough for 2 sisters ? That is a pretty cool stave be nice to get 2 out of it.

Pappy

Pappy · « **Reply #7 on:** November 03, 2011, 11:48:56 am »

Kind of like this.

Pappy

blackhawk · « **Reply #8 on:** November 03, 2011, 12:10:45 pm »

I agree there may be two in there,hence why I asked how wide it was.....

And pappy ill send you my address to send those snakey sisters to me..lol

....just kidding. Sweet staves though.

Pappy · « **Reply #9 on:** November 03, 2011, 12:24:32 pm »

There was really 3 in that piece,that kind of Osage is hard to come by is the only reason I was asking, hate to see it wasted but on the other hand I would rather get one good solid piece that try and be greedy and get none,I have had that happen also.

I will get them sent off right away blackhawk.

Pappy

iowabow · « **Reply #10 on:** November 03, 2011, 12:25:44 pm »

ok i am going to post a ton of pics so standby

blackhawk · « **Reply #11 on:** November 03, 2011, 01:05:31 pm »

Awe....how nice of ya pappy to already make them into bows for me..lol

Awaiting some yeller pics iowa

iowabow · « **Reply #12 on:** November 03, 2011, 01:34:20 pm »

Pappy · « **Reply #13 on:** November 03, 2011, 01:38:10 pm »

That would cutting it real close,I think mine was about 4 inches total and it was scary close.

Pappy

blackhawk · « **Reply #14 on:** November 03, 2011, 01:57:43 pm »

IF your staves sides are perpendicular to the back and rectangular in cross section and not a pie slice shape,and IF the stave has no knots in it that wood be violated by slicing it in half lentghwise,and IF the center half of it will give you an inch and a half each way,then I wood carefully lay out a perfect center line and cut it out with a bandsaw carefully. I wood not try to split it. It must be carefully sawed out.

Primitive Archer