tapering bow tips to attach overlays

[ZanderPommo]

hey guys I've been having trouble recently getting a snakey osage stave to have a flat surface to glue an overlay to. i used my belt grinder then a hand plane but cant get the thing perfectly flat. how do you guys generally cut/sand yours?
thanks in advance for any input!

[Josh]

I just use my belt sander on the tip of the bow to make it flat.. sometimes I have to touch it up with 80 grit sandpaper on a block of wood.  I hold the tip and overlay together up to the light and I adjust till I can't see light through the joint anymore.  Remember to degrease the osage and glue it on.   

[Grunt]

Sanding block with new 60 grit open coat stapled on. Gives a good surface for epoxy.

[El Destructo]

Ditto....Belt Sander with 60 grit....normally don't have any fitment issues at all....

[Ranger B]

It's hard!!!! I concur with you. I've done dozens of them and they are always hard to get perfectly flat.  It's a pain in the arse to be perfectly honest.  Just keep sanding and try and sand them level. Hopefully it helps to know you are not alone.

[Pat B]

Fitment issues, Michael? 
  I do what the others said. You may need to secure the bow tip firmly so you can concentrate on getting it flat with a sanding block.

[Robert]

I just use a 12" bench plane.  It will do the job quickly if you have a good vice setup.  If I wanted the overlay to be 1" long, I would do a couple of strokes starting 1/4" from the tip, on the bow's back going towards the tip, then a couple more starting at 1/2", then 3/4, then finish off with one or two 1" strokes.  That gives the angle to the joint.  I would have the depth of cut set for very thin shavings.  If you made any mistakes or got chattering, you could touch it up with a good flat sanding block.  The easiest mistake is to roll the plane or sanding block side to side as you move it along the bow, and you end up with a convex surface instead of flat surface, or the surface is flat but angled to the side.

[El Destructo]

Fitment issues, Michael? 
 

Yes Pat...but only a time or two...........

[ZanderPommo]

yes the problem I was having was with getting a convex surface, must have just been having bad luck though, because i gave it another go with the bench grinder yesterday and was able to glue it up successfully. thanks all for your help!

[Eric Krewson]

I sometimes get a perfect fit but not often. I get the bow surface as flat as I can, hold the overlay wood to it and hold the combination up to a light and look for gaps. I sand the overlay wood on my belt sander but just use the belt while the sander isn't running to remove wood where I need to to get a good fit. Usually my bow surface is a little concave so I have to make the overlay a little convex to fit.