A few weeks ago I got an osage stave from a friend of mine. He cut it narrow to get rid of all the cracks. Cracks kept appearing so he did not want to risk it and gave it to me.
I chased about five rings to get to a decent back, still some drying cracks remaining but since it is osage I decided to leave it like that.
The stave was relatively straight but had huge propellor twist. With all the cracks, a few knots and the prop twist I decided to play it safe and go for a low stressed reflex/deflex design.
Steamed some deflex in the handle and removed some of the propellor at the same time and started tillering.
The reflexed tips where steamed in after first brace. I always do this after bracing the bow so I know for sure both limbs are even and I can string the bow up without any problems after recurving the tips. (You need to make sure both recurves are exactly the same of course)
Now I wanted just a reflexed bow but the tips kinda look like recurves when the bow is strung. They open at full draw like I wanted to so I just left it like this.
I heat treated the bow and tried to correct some more of the prop twist but it did not really work out and I did not want to heat it too much with all the cracks in the belly so I left it like that. The tips needed some correction to line up. Unbraced it looks a bit weird with the prop twist but it lines up perfect when braced and drawn.
Top limb looks a little stiff mid limb. There is a big knot there with a concave spot in the back right after it and a drying crack really close to the side. That spot scared me so I left it stiffer on purpose.
This bow took me a lot of effort to get right and since it is my first and only piece of osage I decided to put my only snakeskin on it. It is a cobra skin I got from a friend of mine when I gave him a bow. He bought it more the 20 years ago.
I usually don’t make arrow passes but on this one I inlayed a piece of buffalo horn to match with the tips.
I have made a lot of laminated reflex/deflex bows but this is my first rd selfbow and I am pleasantly surprised by the smoothness and speed. It shoots as wel as my last few laminated rd’s so I will definately try some more rd selfbows! (Working on a yew rd already)
// specs
Wood: Osage
Length: 65” nock to nock
Max Width: 1.2 inch
Draw weight: 50#@28”
Backing: Cobra
Nocks/arrow pass: Buffalo horn
Handle: Leather from old jacket
String: 8 strand fastflight
// side
// top
// braced
// prop twist
// handle
// fade
// cobra
// tips
// sunny, just for fun pic
// full draw in the backyard today
