your thoughts on this stave?

[Pat B]

A lot will depend on what your draw length is and intended draw weight will be. For a 28" draw length anything from about 62" to 68". Being that osage is a strong, durable wood 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" at the fades and 1/2" at the tips will make a variety of draw weight bows. You can taper the limbs from the fades or go out 4" to 6" before tapering to the tips.
  Instead of having a predetermined design I like to let the stave tell me what it wants to be. Follow the side to side contours as well as the back to belly contours when working with staves. With boards it is a bit different.

[Del the cat]

That should only take a dozen or so attempts to steam it straight
I'd swap it for the Yew stave I'm working on at the moment, it's a battle to find out which of us is the more stuborn
Del

[George Tsoukalas]

That jig will only work if the stave is split. I just eye ball it. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/layout.html

[iowabow]

well I am going to try and lay it out tonight, will add pictures as it progresses. I am glad you all have rang in on the thread now will a hair dryer work or will i need to buy a heat gun?

[John K]

You'll want to use a heat gun, hair dryer won't get hot enough.

[Pat B]

You can do it over the eye of your cook stove but you will get much better results with a heat gun. Heat guns don't have to be expensive to be good either. I got my B&D 2 speed about 10 years ago at a garage sale for $5 and it has heated a lot of osage and other woods and helped to straighten lots of hardwood shoot and cane shafts.

[1776J]

Yep,.. I'll be making one of those center line gizmos tomorrow! haha

[JW_Halverson]

After years of teaching my eye to find the grain lines down the length of the staves, I doubt if I can get myself to trust one of those wierd gizmos.  From the looks of the sides of this split stave, folowing the grain is going to be really easy whether you go gizmo route or eyeball.  This stave should be pretty forgiving of minor errors all around, it looks pretty sweet.

[Pat B]

Put the stave between you and bright sun light and the grain should jump or at least be more visable.
  I use my contraption when I have a very crooked stave. It is only a guide anyway. My bows still follow the grain.
  The "Gizmo" is Eric Krewson's tillering aid and a must in a wood bowyers box IMO. All I did was put cedar arrow cut off in the backside of Eric's Gizmo for my centering tool. Not my idea but my tool. 

[JW_Halverson]

Sunrise to start a bow and end a bow.  Pat says to put the bow between you and bright light, you betcha....sit on the front step at sunrise with your coffee at your side and take your time drawing in the lines.  Your eyes are more rested and better able to see details, plus it's usually a calm time when others are still asleep.

Then when you are finishing out with the sanding there you are, the sunrise, a cup of coffee, and your sandpaper out on the step again.  Sight down the limbs and look for toolmarks and dings to sand away.  Something kinda zen-like about it.  No matter how I may curse a stave in between, those are the time I am most in love with her.

[iowabow]

That soumd great and I do like coffee. OK my draw is 25.5 inch and I want to make a 55 lbs bow earlier someone said that the design might be dictated by the # and draw length any input on that before I draw this up.

[Pat B]

60" straight limb, 1 3/8" at the fades and a straight taper to 1/2" tips(to be reduced later). For me it would be a symmetrical design with a 4" handle centered on the bow. Fades would be 1 1/2" long, rigid tips and limbs that bend right up to the handle. I like to feel the handle "give" a tad at my full draw(26").
  If you want to jazz it up a bit recurve the last 6" of the tips or just kick the tips up a bit.

[Dean Marlow]

That is a beautiful stave. Looks clean and long. Hard to get in Osage. Looks like a Osage war bow candidate to me. Any of you guys out there wanting to make a war bow out of Osage  ought to see if he is up to trading. Dean

[iowabow]

I think I have a 60 inch string packed away if that is the case should I make it 63"

[Sidewinder]

Pat those sound like good dimensions to me, the one I just finished 59" long 1-11/8 at the fades same handle and fade dimendsions and it came in at the desired 45# I was shooting, for so I think that added mass might do the trick for a 55#er.

JW...its good to see ya online again, no doubt the coffee in the morning whilst bonding with the wood is a good thing for sure and suing the sunlight to your advantage is I'm sure and age old thing amongst bowyers.

Danny