Noah is a young man from around the corner from me. A while back he asked me when I was going to make a bow for him. I said I wasn't going to do that, but if he wanted to come over, I would help him make his own. The stave is one I received from Mullet in exchange for a Bear Kodiak -- it was a monster piece of osage that I was able to split into three very nice staves. We decided the belly split might have too much character for a first bow, but it does have some interesting stripes that I hope survive, and might end up with a hole through it. . . but I digress.
Noah's stave is from the top and also looks like a beautiful piece of wood with good color and good rings. It is about 65" long and we are starting at 1.5" at the fades and parallel out about 2/3 of the way and tapering from there. He has taken off the sapwood and chased a ring on the back. Today we got the rough layout done. I will let Noah tell you what he thought of the process, but since some here don't read too good, here are some pictures.