Looking for advice

[LivingElemental]

I'm getting this 53" shorty down to floor tiller.
So far I'm planning on it bending in the handle, pulling about 55-60# @ 24", and I'm gonna try flipping the tips to get more out of it.

This bow is a lot of firsts for me. My first stave bow, first character bow, first reflexed tips, first bow working around knots and pins, and first either dealing with or heat correcting rotational twists. I don't have any specific concerns, I'm just working as slowly as I can to avoid ruining this, and I'm learning a lot about this as I go along, I'd just like to get a little bit of input from people who have been doing this a lot longer than I have.

-There are a lot of knots/pins
-The little twists in the bow I can only describe as similar to a tootsie roll wrapper. Twisted in the same direction on both ends.
-Should this survive it to fruition, what kind of finish wouldn't change the color, but would make the part of this tree that turned ebony really contrast the lighter wood?








Thanks
-Dakota

[LivingElemental]

Also is there any issue leaving the twist in the limbs, given they both face the same direction?

[blackhawk]

Looks like black walnut? Correct? That twist doesn't scare me to much. Id use tru oil on walnut. And flipping the tips in the last 3" will help. Make sure to adhere to never pulling further than a problem area with walnut,otherwise it'll wanna take set there...it isn't very forgiving of tillering errors imo. Heat treating seems to help it,but I'm still O for 2 with it. So I'm not to fond of the wood.

[LivingElemental]

I was fairly certain it was persimmon when I cut it down and split it (really dense and interlocking fibers), then i was very certain when it started turning black while curing. I've never worked with black walnut before, so i know nothing about it, but that will definitely change how much weight i want to get out of this thing.

[JW_Halverson]

Well, it's obvious that the stave is made of wood. 

Having said that, I recommend using a pencil and finding the middle line of grain down that stave from one end to the other before you even start thinking of what kind of bow you "want".  Even draw a couple more parallel lines down the grain.  Those simple pencil lines will guide your decision making process, they will help you find the bow that is hidden in the wood. 

[Pat B]

I wouldn't worry about the little bit of twist in that stave at all. The latteral bends can probably be worked out while shaping the bow. Start reducing the belly and get it to floor tiller stage before you draw out the outline. Keep the tips full width until you see how the string tracks then line it up by reducing the heavy side more than the other to get your final limb shape. Same with the handle area. Leave it wide until you see how the string tracks.

[crooketarrow]

  Those twists are small enough that you can get rid of them threw tillering.

[Buckeye Guy]

Not sure what kind of wood you have there ,but it should not take much work to get a bow out of it !!
Have fun
Guy

[anasazi]

Have you ever tried using olive oil? It seems to really show off the color and grain of the wood

[Del the cat]

Flipping the tips on a bow that short sounds perverse to me. (Mind I know zip about shorties so feel free to laugh in my general direction)
It's so short, surley you need to maintain as much length and workting limb as possible? Flipping the tips effectively shortens the limbs and adds more stress or shortens the draw length even more.
Maybe you meant flipping them the other way ?
Del

[scp]

Persimmon is dense and heavy but takes a lot of set easily. I would never pull on it too hard until I heat treat the whole belly and induce a little reflex. It sure shoots smooth but probably not very fast. Good luck.

[George Tsoukalas]

I think you are asking a lot from that short, heavily crowned stave drawn 24" but you'll have to decide. Jawge

[LivingElemental]

Im not sure why 24 inches would be asking too much from this wood, and Im decrowning as i go, Im not going to leave it a round bellied bow. with the compression weakness of persimmon, i decided to go flat and toasted belly.

steady as she goes so i don't screw this one up. ill let you all know of any success or major disasters.

[scp]

I would not decrown it. I have a similar size (54 inches long) persimmon bow in progress, 2 inch wide working limbs with no knots, 8 inch stiff handle and 7 inch unbending tips. So far I only pulled it to 20 inches, but it already has the set of a couple of inches. No problem there. No matter how much string follow it gets, I can easily compensate for it by flipping the unbending tips and toasting the belly. I'm doing it this way simply because I like that kind of side profile. I gather you are going for the bending handle and probably just a simple arc tiller. I don't see why you cannot pull it to 24 inches either.

[LivingElemental]

Okay, thanks. Im still fairly new to all of this, so Im toddling my way through this bow.