So I caught this bug about 18yrs ago...it seems to come and go depending on life. It has lately resurfaced and I may have almost made a bow on my own. 2 summers ago local guy named Martin responded to a random email from me and donated me an osage blank and his Sunday afternoon. Before I left his place I had a pretty ugly but very shootable osage bow. Since then hurricanes and life have kept me from working on a bow. I've finally been able to spend some time with my own stuff these last 8-12 weeks. I cut this hickory in north Ga just before I moved to the Savannah area (i've been sitting on this wood for fully 16yrs). I then promptly abused the hell out of it storing it outside for several months before realizing the bugs in south Ga are happy to eat north Ga wood. So then it sat in the corner of my man cave for years and I would sometimes take a piece out and reduce it to kindling before moving on to something else. I made some pretty poor quality bamboo backed hickory kindling :-)
Today I think I am close but not quite there. It's a less than great piece that did not split well so the handle is missing some splintery chunks. And one fade started pretty weird-I didn't make it that thin. It came that way out of the tree. It pulls maybe 35lbs at 26" which is lighter than I wanted but that fact it almost bends well is victory enough for me. It's about 64" end to end.
Could I toast the belly and get the pounds up a bit? And where should I be scraping as I get closer to being done? This wood is measuring MC of about 10.5% for whatever that is worth.
Thanks for the feedback! Have some pieces of hickory left and some hackberry and mulberry coming from an ebay vendor based in NE. Super excited about the new wood coming but want to do at least one more hickory bow that comes in over 45lbs before I try the new wood.
