Well, after sanding to 600 grit, including the rind (I went easy on the nodes and super glued them as well), applying 2 coats of tung oil and 8 coats of clear shellac (decided not to dye the boo, I really like the contrasting colors), putting a Bear hair rest on the shelf, wrapping the handle in jute (it's not glued on, so if Jeff wants to remove it, he may), making a new string (the one I made to shoot it in was just a hair too short), and shooting the string in (50 shots, plus just to make sure everything is good to go), I'd say this bow is done! Here are some more stats for the bow (this was all covered near or at the beginning, but for the sake of the people who want to skip by the previous 11 pages, here's all that info in one place).
Bamboo - Walnut - Osage R/D Trilam:
69" ttt (67" ntn)
48 lbs @ 29" draw
13" handle/riser section
Bamboo back is 1/8" at the fades and tapered to 1/16" at the tips
Walnut core is 3/16" at the fades and tapered to 1/16" at the tips
Osage back was 1/4" thick before tillering. I also flipped the tips of the osage prior to glue-up as a way to help retain the curve at the tips. I also ended up rounding the belly a wee bit, so it ended up being a bit of a shallow D shape.
The fades are 1 1/4" wide, maintained for 6", then taper to 1/2" at the tip.
The tips are horn with a touch of maple on the top.
The handle is maple-purpleheart-firgured maple.
The handle has a bit of a groove shaped into it for the hand to rest in. Not a pistol grip, but I think it's nice for the hand to nestle into the handle.
The shelf is cut 1/4" from the center. The main point of the shelf was to be wide enough for the arrow to rest on comfortably.
The string is a 10 strand D79 Flemish twist with yarn silencers.
And for the pictures!
The obligatory "hanging on the cedar privacy fence strung profile" picture:
A closer look at the shelf (and a good look at the woods... I'm kinda diggin the tone the purpleheart took, but it might change after some more UV exposure):
A closer look at the limbs (I forgot to take a front shot of the bamboo, but this is a pretty good shot of the contrasting colors):
A closeup of one of the tips:
Braced in the hand (6" brace):
And the "money shot":
And for those skipping to this point in the thread, here's the last picture of the unbraced bow I took (this was after shooing in 25 times to make sure the top limb was bending correctly), as I forgot to get that picture after the bow was finished:
Some final thoughts to come soon!
