Thanks for the kind welcome. The bow I sent pictures of is the same bow sitting on the saw horses next to the gnarly stave. I honestly haven't worked up the nerve to work that bent stave. The bend is so severe that the load will be sideways on some of the wood and I'm not sure how or if it will work. That was the gist of my question. My favorite bow is a sinew backed osage of about 62" length with a big knot hole in the upper limb. The only picture I have of it here at work also has a dead deer in it. Not sure if that kind of picture is appropriate in this forum. It was also a thin gnarly stave that I put off working on a couple years. I shot the one deer with it and then retired it as I didn't want to risk blowing it up around that knot. It would only draw about 25" and was not my best tiller job. At 3d shoots I got a lot of grief that I had a peep sight.
The best osage I've ever worked with was an old corner post I found in southern Nebraska when we lived up there. Talk about seasoned...and without a single knot! Too short for a full stave, I have to join billets to use it. I've toyed with making a take-down, has anyone done that? I've saved half that old post for a special project someday. I used 2 billets from it to help a high school student make his first bow. I do have pics of that one here.
Here he is after shooting it for the first time with the handle unfinished, no handle wrap or rest.
Here he is shooting it when it was finished.
That one was 65# @ 28". It's a little heavy for me, but he can shoot it. He's coming down to hog hunt with me, rumor has it he's made a bow for me but I won't see it for another month or 2. That'll be fun.
To be honest, I'd rather teach somebody to build a bow than build one myself. I learned in a John Strunk class in Montana in 1995.
George
