Scraped waaay too much... burn it?

[Knoll]

It still may not survive, but I will give it a try!

YES!

[riverrat]

what would be the problem with shortening the limbs this gives you add weight to draw, then retiller to make it work?

[Loope]

I started the re-work process.  My hope for the rework would be to get 50 pounds, or close to that.  Based on the comment of gaining 5 pounds per inch cut off the tips, 50 pounds might be achievable.

So far, I cut 3 inches off each tip - now 64 inches n-t-n. 

I had left the handle unfinished, which I think tricked me a little on the fades.  That is, trying to get a smooth transition with a too thick handle resulted in longer fades than I had thought.  So I thinned the handle to 1 1/2 inches and reworked the fades to improve it there somewhat.

Then started working on the inner limbs to get them working more.

Calling it quits for now, gotta switch over to finishing up some Christmas projects.  This dogwood may have to wait somewhat for the next steps.

By the way, I am loving dogwood.  It is hard, dense, and works well, and has an interesting pinkish hue to it. 

[BowEd]

Yes that pink hew is cool.I see it once in a while in hickory too,but not as much as dogwood.Good luck.

[Loope]

I know this is an old post, but thought I would resurrect it to give an update.  I finished the bow this fall and ended up with an excellent bow, comparatively speaking.  I have made about a dozen bows now, and this is one of the best.  I chronographed the bow and it was hitting in the mid to upper 150's fps, and I loved shooting it.  I know that isn't blazing speed, but it seemed faster than my others... though I don't know for sure since I have only chrono'd two bows.

I ended up piking it, heat treating the belly, and re-tillering.  The final specs are: dogwood bow with walnut handle lam, 64" long, 58" 10 strand B-50 flemish twist string, 47 pound at 28 inch draw, aniline dye and tru-oil finish.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any pictures of the final bow with stain and finish, but here are a couple pictures just before doing the final finishing.  In the pic with two braced bows, it is the one on top.

[George Tsoukalas]

Yes sir! That's awesome. You did very well. Jawge

[bubbles]

Looks great!

[Jim Davis]

Just my opinion, but I think if you shorten it to 60" it will either break or  take a LOT of set.

I'd cut it down to 66" nock to nock, clean up the tiller and have a good shooter. You'd come out about the 40# you have now or a little more.

Nothing wrong with a #40 bow.

Jim Davis

[bradsmith2010]

congrats on getting a nice bow,, 

[Bob Barnes]

great save... your bow looks like a shooter!
Merry Christmas.
Bob

[bjrogg]

Really glad you didn't use that one for firewood. You got some great advice and used it wisely and the proof is in the end product. I'm sure you gained a lot of valuable knowledge. Looks like a hunter to me
Bjrogg

[Drewster]

Great save indeed.   You did get some great advice and did some fine work.  Congrats on a very nice bow.

[osage outlaw]

Good job finding a good bow in there.  The tiller looks much better than your original picture. 

[scp]

If it breaks, study the break and see why then make an atlatl out of the good half.

You can even make a bow by joining the two broken bows.

[Redhand]

Nice save on that one. Tiller looks great too.