Clamp those saplings!!

[Grunt]

Here ate a couple of bows to be. Black locust saplings rough sawed and clamped to straight edges to dry.

[George Tsoukalas]

I never tried that, Grunt, but it may be a good idea. Jawge

[Little John]

Good luck with those saplings. I would like to try another one.       Kenneth

[Pat B]

I took a 2" osage pole, sawed it in half lengthwise and wrapped the two halves back together with twine and spacers between so they would dry without warping, twisting or getting too muck backset. Worked very well and now both sides are unwrapped and stable.
  Kenneth, If you want to try one just say and I'll send half out!    Might make a good elk bow!

[Little John]

Pat,yea I might like to try that. The last one is nice and a good shooter but another one of my under weight bows that could have been better. The last one had about 3-4 inches of back set and still has a couple. I think the next one could be an elk slayer in the 60ish pound range. It would be fun to try a backwards bow but anyback set would really be string follow.    Kenneth

[Pat B]

I purposly tied these up together to prevent backset. That can be added later if wanted or needed. That was the problem with the last ones, too much backset to start off with. My pole from the other half than I sent you came out nice with lots of backset but the strain caused a cross grain crack in the back. At some point I will remove that top ring and reduce the backset some and see where that takes me.
  It will be after the first before I can send it to you but i will! 

[Lombard]

Good idea! I clamp green wood all kinds of different ways, experimenting. Saves a great deal of time heat correcting later on.
Be even better if I built another steam box to heat them in and drive some moisture out, then clamp them.

[Lombard]

Should have mentioned that on that particular stave the tips were two inches out of alignment from each other and propeller twisted a little bit. Note there are wedges here and there that once clamped force the wood into a tamer condition. Sometimes when I do this, once dried, no further corrections are necessary. This is green wood right off the stump.

[Postman]

Great idea!

[rwaterman00]

kool i have an old bed frame i use. for straightening.
and one i use to hold the bow. i clamp it totally flat on the frame while shapeing the belly, and when removing wood during floor tillering.