roughing out snakey osage

[luke the drifter]

i hope this does not sound redundant.  i have a quick question about finding the center of a stave.  i have this osage stave that is snakey on one end and straight on the other.  i am making it a 64 inch bow.  question- if i find the center of each end of the stave and it does not run through the center of the handle and believe me it does not, will it still work?  will i have to try to bend it straight?  if not, i still have some area to work with on the straight to try to get it to center up.  i am going to try to upload some pictures as soon as i technologically civilized.

[DanaM]

I'd start in the middle and follow the grain to each end, do it outside in the sun its much easier to see the grain in natural light.
Have you chased a ring yet, if not thats the first step.

[Pat B]

  Pics of your stave will help!
This is what I use. If you do it from both sides you will get two lines in some areas but if you split the difference between them you will have the center.

[GregB]

I like to get the light reflecting off the stave right to see the grain and follow it. You can cheat a little in the non-bending handle area if you have to and get off the centerline a little. I've had to do that before without any problems. If you get the stave floor tillered, dry heat will work for tweaking the limb over if needed.

[GregB]

This one had quite a bit of tweaking to do to get it line up...it is pretty much center shot.

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[VenomBOWslinger]

  :oWOW AFTER SEEING THAT BOW I TOTALLY FORGOT WHAT THIS THREAD WAS ABOUT...THAT IS SUPER SNAKEY AND VERY AWESOME LOOKING BOW!!!! ALL i CAN SAY IS WOW!!!
CHEERS!!!

[Hillbilly]

Cutting straight bow from crooked stave = major trouble. I've fudged a couple a little, but not much. Follow the grain down the center to rough it out, then attack it with heat to get it lined up.

[osage outlaw]

I use a flexible ruler and measure the width of the stave about every 2-3 inches on a snakey stave.  I use the metric side.  Say the stave is 50 mm across, I mark it at 25 mm.  Then I connect the dots down the whole length and have a true center line.  It takes some time, but it works for me.

[Dano]

I like to follow the grain like some have said, in the sunlight makes it easier. Once I have a center line I use a circle template and mark circles along the center line, then use a straight edge to connect the outer edges of the circles, if you mark enough you follow the center well enough. It is also a good idea to use a drawknife to work the profile, you know your following grain then. Takes time but a good snakey stave is worth the time.