The subtitle to this should be "Or whatever happens happens". I did one of these a few years ago and it was a blast for me and I think some others found it interesting, so, here we go. I want to preface this post with a few words about an observation of mine. I have been away from this site for about a year. Few nagging health issues, nothing life threatening but enough to suck the sap out of me for a bit. I've been back around for a few weeks, and the mood around this place is noticeably....not at it's peak. I have mentioned this observation to a few others in some pm's back and forth. I for one won't, can't, accept that as the new "look". I am not singling anyone out or making a statement as to whether folks might not have a legitimate beef. I am simply saying that I want to go outside and play. Have fun. So, if your interested come on along. For you newbies, you might learn a little sumpn, sumpn along the way. No new ground to uncover here but I will cover the basics with lots of pics as I go. All questions are welcomed and any thoughts or critiques are taken in the spirit friendship. And...we're off!
In a previous post I mentioned some details about this stave. Very tough to get a good ring from end to end. The rings just below the sap wood were paper thin, and in some areas the early wood seemed to just vanish altogether. This is the first bodark stave I have worked on in some time and I am rusty, but I spent maybe 6 hours chasing a good ring on this bad boy. I finally went down to a good thick ring half way through the depth of this stave and was able to establish a decent growth ring, end to end. The stave is 58 inches long, maybe a skosh over. Not a bad piece of sage at all. Pretty red streaks throughout the length of it, but the deeper I got the less red there was. It's just over 2 inches wide. As mentioned, my working plan is to do a static recurve although this piece is less than ideally suited for that design. The knots are an issue and as PEARL said the other day, alignment is the almighty killer on these statics. I think the alignment will be ok, but the knots are there and who knows how they will hold up.
I have the bow drawn out. 58 inches tip to tip. I have a 4 inch handle and the fades are 2 inches each. I have the width at the fades drawn out as 1 3/4 inches for the next 15 inches. A slight taper to 1 1/2 inches at that point. I have the tips roughed in at 3/4 of an inch wide but they will come way down from there. I am keeping it wide to keep the weight up and hopefully keep it together. I can narrow it from there if I need to or see that I can. We shall see.
Started raining so I'm gonna break out the belt sander manana.
