Yeah, Pappy, everyone that sees that bow up close and personal falls in love with it and can hardly believe it. As I said it is even better "In hand" - LOL - I will either get pics of more of Mikes beautiful and interesting work, or get him to post some perhaps. (He really is a very busy guy working with the USMC.)
Well, as someone said, it was time to go to a big file on my Osage. At Mike's suggestion I opted for Shure Forms (flat and curved) instead, as I had quite a bit of wood still to remove from handle area and limbs to even get to the "bendable with heat" state. Here you can see that, after I took the handle sides down closer to line, and got started on one limb:
Those rascals ("cheese grater" tools) can flat move some wood, and I was getting into it - while watching closely and judging high/low spots by running my thumb and forefinger of opposite hands, on each edge at the same time, as Mike had showed me. Of course I had to be careful to follow all the "whoopties" and twists and turns Though not too many on this nice stave - it's fascinating to me to see the bow beginning to take shape more and more with each pass:
After working the bow down in thickness enough to get some lateral movement out of it ,we were ready to attemp some heat bending. We hoped to move the handle closer to a mid-line first, so that when we get to moving the (thinner) limb areas, they won't have to be moved so far. I must apologize at this point for getting no pictures during the heating and bending of the handle area. Since it was my first attempt, I was too, too busy paying attention (and being amazed), to even think about taking pictures (and Mike was too busy keeping a watchful eye on me - LOL). I promise I will get some pics when we do the limb areas, and a twist that must be straightened out a little. Though Mike has (and showed me) a number of Cauls that he uses for various bendings, "my bends" we were able to work on by using the bench vice, clamps and wedges/shims/pads, and the heat gun. As you can see in the next pic, we were successful in moving the handle (neatly, and with only a slight scorch, which I have pleanty of room to remove) and it really puts the limbs in a much better alignment with the axis/centerline of the bow - especially if you compare it with similar pics of the stave/bow, from earlier in this thread. I'm pumped! The darkness of the handle is not the scorch (just a small one on the other side) but is from the Crisco we used to help conduct the heat into the interior wood, and to protect the wood.
Next session I'll work on the limb areas (laterally), and the twist (if it still presents a problem) .
