" Fast Fire" osage bow

[ntvbowyer1969]

[/img]Hello everyone, I havent posted any bows in a long time now as my health did not allow it. I have been working a little here and there on this one and i think the slow pace made it better. The wood was from the osage i harvested last September. It was a beautiful stave with perfect ratio of rings. The snakes, hills,and valleys just made it a blast to work. (esp. knowing i wasnt being rushed). I used direct heat and a caul to flip the tips. I didnt make them radical like recurve tips just enough to add some performance and make the draw as smooth as butter. The string does not touch the limbs at all so this is just a long bow with flipped ends. I did have some twist issues and a slight bit of tip alignment issues i also fixed with direct heat. If anyone remembers my post where i asked about silk and if they new a better way to glue it without changing the colors this is the bow that i was going to try it on. I glued on red silk to the back with titebond3 . It did darken quite a bit. I then found out if you use your fingernail to scratch it just lightly it brightened the color back up some by fraying the outside of the silk and exposing the color again. This process took some time to go over the limbs. I then chose to use western coach whip snake skins to go over the silk. I used them because the were very dull by themselves and were translucent in nature. I glued them to the silk also by using titebond3. After 24hrs i started to see the red bleeding through the skins slightly. I decided at that time to give it a couple more days to dry and see if it shows through any more.On day three the color did show up more through the skins but not to the degree i was happy with. at this point i improvised since i never did this before but thats what we do as bow makers is experiment and learn. I took extra fine steel wool and sanded the skins in the direction the scales laid down. To my amazement and to the rest of the houses amazement since i was fist pumping and screaming the house down "IT Worked"!!!! The red color blazed through the skins now just how i imagined them to be. I did this to the rest of both limbs which also took some time.When i glued the snake on the back i wrapped the skins around the sides of the limbs to show the real color of the coach whips.Also i was hoping it would make where the silk was pop even more. I used birch burl for the tip overlays that had a beautiful color also that dances in the sun light. I sanded everything on belly and tips down to 550gr. I then did 8 coats of truoil on belly and back making sure i sanded with steel wool   in between coats. I also let my coats dry a long time and only did two coats a day. I also rubbed them with a polishing cloth before i put the next coat on. Online i found a beautiful piece of cow leather cranberry colored which matches the back of bow perfect. I used a tan lacing for the handle to match the burl tips. The bow is 49#@25" but is tillered out to 28". 25" happens to be my draw length since this one is going on my wall and out to the woods this fall. Enjoy everyone. I really wanted to do something different than i usually do and i am very proud of this one.                                                                             




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[Del the cat]

Great bow, nicely written up to share the build
Del

[simson]

don't know why you're looking so sad in the pics ...
You've made a pretty nice bow man!
 
Thanks for your notes about your skin job.

[PaSteve]

Well done. Those skins look great. Best of luck with it this fall. That full draw pic looks exactly  like the woods I hunt in PA.

[bjrogg]

Beautiful bow NTV. I enjoyed your detailed account of this build. Some helpful tips in it. Nice profiles. It does look like a very smooth shooter. Sure hope your health improves.
Bjrogg

[leonwood]

Thanks for writing that up! That skin really pops with the red underneath, great job!

[Aaron H]

Cool results

[ntvbowyer1969]

Thank you everyone. I love how we all share knowledge on here.

[GlisGlis]

great bow and my respect for sharing this nice skins technique

[Danzn Bar]

Great looking bow.  good luck hunting with it this fall.
DBar

[Hawkdancer]

Great looking bow, and a nice write up!  Good luck on the hunt, and stay healthy!  Sliante!
Hawkdancer

[JW_Halverson]

I will say you sure didn't forget anything about making bows!  She's got all the right curves in all the right places, and I bet all the boys wanna dance with her!

[ntvbowyer1969]

Thank you everyone.

[Accipiter]

Geez, that is as close to perfection as I've seen. Awesome vision and execution, good luck in the woods this fall!

[M2A]

Great looking bow. That was a good read thx for sharing.  That's some great color on them skins. Mike