Started on a new piece of yeller today

[StickMan47]

As the title says, I'm starting a new bow. This may turn into a follow along as I'm tryin to take pics of my progress. I am by no means an expert, heck I'm not sure I have even left the novice category yet! 
I don't usually post up the stuff I make cause it just ain't on the same level as what you guys are making. Ya'll make some fine bows and I gotta say thanks, cause I've learned a lot from trolling everybody's posts.
So here we go. Got me a piece of Osage been hangin out in my stash for bout 4 years. It's 73" long right now with 2 1/2" of natural reflex; I'm hoping to keep most of that when its all said and done.



Hope that worked. So I spent 4 hours today getting the back chased. Fairly clean stave with some pins here and there and a nice character knot that will be right about center of one of the limbs.




Took about an hour for me to work that knot. Finally wrapped some 180 grit around the head of a wood screw to get down to my ring. Screw also worked good for digging out the punky stuff.

[Dances with squirrels]

Oh my goodness. I hope you fully realize what you've got there. That's a Goddess of an osage stave.

[Dances with squirrels]

Hmmm. For some reason, I'm really quite smitten with her 

Please, please treat her right.

[StickMan47]

Well I finally finished and ran some 180 along the entire back just to get the bigger tool marks out. I also like to do this so I can see the beauty of that yella stuff! I have found that it also kinda "highlights" the little pieces of sapwood that got left behind. The fine powder builds up around these spots making them really stand out. It also gives me a feel for the little waves along the back. Probably could skip all that hand sanding at this stage but it's something I like to do.
So enough of my rambling, let's get back to something I discovered.
It appears I am gonna have to go down one more ring. Bummer right? Well I shoulda caught this before all that sanding and knot work. But that dang knot just pulled me in and I forgot to check this side check that I knew was there in the beginning.




So I know I gotta get this out. And upon further inspection I noticed this hairline further up the limb about 3 or 4 rings further down.


So wish me luck guys. We'll see what happens when I rough her out. Hopefully that hairline check isn't as deep as the first one. I'll be back on it tomorrow after work. Get that ring chased one more time and start profiling the sides and see if that second check is gonna make me chase some more rings. Fingers crossed!

[StickMan47]

Thanks Squirrels. Yea she's been such a temptation these past years. Was very hard to resist when I first laid my eyes on all that natural reflex. I have all my stages stored inside the house and not sure how those checks came to be. It was sealed up good this whole time. I'm blaming it on the wife keeping the heater runnin too much this winter! Mighta dried it out a little more than it was used to. No worries tho got plenty of wood left on her.

[George Tsoukalas]

Gorgeous stave! Are you going for a heartwood back?
Jawge

[StickMan47]

Yea George, gonna be heartwood on the back. Took off all the sapwood. Pics are kinda deceiving I guess, phone camera makes the back look kinda like sapwood. But she has a nice golden yellow color in the right light. Plannin on profiling the sides before I get to chasing another ring. Then I'll know if I gotta go 3 more or just one.

[George Tsoukalas]

Oh good, Stickman. Those camera phones are convenient but not always of the best quality. Enjoy your bow making. Jawge

[osage outlaw]

Good looking stave.  Hope you can work around those side checks.

[Pappy]

Good looking stave, I personally am still looking for the prefect stave after all these years, it always seems to be something along the way to challenge you. Side check is something I always look for right off, I get them GONE and then move on to figuring the lay out. That saves me a lot of disappointment rather than fine them later in the build after I have it laid out. That really stinks when that happens. 
 Pappy

[Eric Krewson]

I am going to make prediction and you are not going to like what I have to say. I have tried to make several bows from side checked wood and all failed. This type of wood lacks the structural integrity to stay together.

Here is what happened when I tried to make a bow out of side checked wood, the stave was a beauty just like yours. I had worked all the checks out of it.



Another bow, sinewed this time, side checks were showing in the stave before I started.

[StickMan47]

You hit the nail on the head Eric. Hate to see that happen on those two staves of yours. And yea I ain't likin what you said but all I can do is hope for the best on this one. Thing about this endeavor we share; is sometimes you win some, sometimes we loose some. Hopefully this one is a winner.

What was the weight you were drawing on the two the came apart? Would it be best to go for a lower draw weight, say 40ish lbs?

[John Scifres]

Bummer.  Been there.  Side checks often indicate an extreme event in the history of the tree, such as high winds or enormous snow loads.  If you look at Eric's first pic, there is some oxidation inside the check which means it was probably an old injury.  If there is yellow wood in there it is probably more recent and often happens when trees are pushed over during landclearing.  You are handling it correctly by getting the stave to your future bow's profile and seeing if you have other, as yet undiscovered, shakes in there.  Good luck.  Let us know what happens.

[simson]

Clean up the sides of that stave with your drawknife it is more than wide enough. Sometimes the side checks go not through the entire limbs.
In this case I would chase the next intact ring.
Good Luck!

[bradsmith2010]

i have had side checks that I worked around or I was able to go past them on the side,,its worth a try,, I have on bow that has them still showing and sap wood for the back,,, killed a buffalo with it,,it is retired,,