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[Swampman]

That piece of wood has some nice potential!

[hoosierf]

Worked down the HL over the weekend. Pear tip overlays are glued and roughed out. Letting it dry some more today. Got it on the long string at just 25#’s for a little peek.  It has an almost five curve profile so it’s kinda cool.  It’s keeping all of its reflex so far. I’m out of town for the rest of the week so I’d like to heat treat and get the first layer of sinew down tonight. Pics later when I get home.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I grabbed a few staves from the barn this morning. A 48” long by 3” wide Osage, a black cherry to mess around with, and a persimmon for a fall back. I’m gonna start roughing them out this afternoon once I get done playing at the gym.

Kyle

[hoosierf]

Super wide super thin Osage will be pretty darn cool if you can make it work.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

 It the paddle bow roughed out. It’s gonna get THIN. I roughed it out to about 2 5/8” wide from fades to mid limb and about 1 5/8” at the handle. It’s 48” long from top to tip and is about 1/2” thick. I can hardly flex the thing on the floor.

Kyle

[Deerhunter21]

That Looks like a small bow! how do you make sure it can handle a 28" draw?

[Mo_coon-catcher]

It does feel very short for what I would normally like and am used to. I’m going to flip the tips to make sure the string can’t slip off and leave it wide and thin so it can bend in a tighter radius without damage. Now how far it’ll let me go, I havnt a clue until I start flexing it. If I end up sinew backing it, I won’t have a single question about it handling 27”. But I want to see what it’ll take as a self bow first. I’m pretty confident in it Atleast making 25”, who knows past that.

Kyle

[Stickhead]

I’m trying to get an early start on this, because it’s a risky stave.  For a few years, I’ve had this Z-shaped ERC branch I split in half.  Been working up the guts to attempt it.  I’ve been envisioning it as a couple of naturally recurved billets.  It also has an S-shape when the billets are joined, but I think I can make it so the string crosses the handle near center.  Maybe, just maybe, all the weird bends will be symmetrical enough to make this a good shooter, if it survives tillering.  Figure I’ll back it with sinew, rawhide or tough fish skins.

...Tom

[Bayou Ben]

That's a shorty you got there Kyle.

Liking the curves of those ERC billets Tom. 

Looking good fellas. 

[DC]

I like the bends on that ERC. I found that when the limb bends sideways enough so you can see the string from the front that the limb has a tendency to twist as it's drawn. Especially with big hooks. If you break the rules and tiller it with one side thicker than the other you can counter that twist to an extent. But you probably knew that

[M2A]

Looks like you all got some great looking projects started. Cant wait to see them throwing arrows.

I got my piece of Osage just starting to bend(5 inches or so on the long string). Had some hickups along the way but feeling pretty good about things now. After I had a ring chased and started roughing it out, noticed a wind check on the belly side that was going to run right out my fade. Things were plenty wide at that point so no biggie just had to adjust things over and still have a little more I'd like to take off the width maybe. The good thing is I'm down to solid wood everywhere and I've been studying this piece hard. Just for entertainment purposes I'm including a few picks of the main offender.

Think I'll work on it one more evening then bring it in for a week to make sure it's dry(it is but just want to make darn sure). Provided it is, then it will be time to even up the limbs with some heat. Its unfortunate but ring thickness changes from side to side so the flames on the belly will be offset, but if that's the worst that happens I'll be living large.

I have a couple other pieces I'd like to rough out while this one is idle. Going to see how they work down before I say too much but just as excited to work on them as I am with this Osage
Enjoy, Mike

Sorry for oversized pics, I'll try to start to make them smaller. And not sure why my phone thinks the lower limb is so much shorter, limbs are even. I really need to work on my computer skills
   
   IMG_2565 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr
IMG_2568 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr
IMG_2570 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr
IMG_2572 by Mike Allridge, on Flickr

[Swampman]

I did some more shaping and wood removal on the red elm tonight.  Got both limbs bending a bit but I need to do some more work on the inner thirds. I also did some heat work on in of my black locusts staves. Both limbs on that bow deflex so I moved the top out a bit.  I may need to do some more work on that.  I didn't take any pictures tonight but I will get some next time I work on them.

[Swampman]

I did some work on my red elm stave this morning.  One limb is looking really good but the other limb is giving me troubles.  That limb has a lot of knots and doesn't seem to like to bend.  Experience tells me to stop and get back to it later.  I have run across this issue before and not set it aside.  Before I knew it  had a limb bending too much. 

Here are a couple pictures.  The stave is 66 inches long.

[Deerhunter21]

Looking good! 

[doulosparachristos]

Did a bit more shaping and scraping this morning. I’m keeping it a bit wide to deal with a few small knots that showed up. I think next I’ll straighten it at the handle and see where I’m at.