Start of an osage ALB

[Pat B]

It will only be a slight radius once the bow is done and the corners rounded. It gets relatively flat while I'm building, especially while I'm going around knots, etc. The concave back will also have something to do with how much radius and where.

[Pat B]

As I'm reducing the belly and using my hand as a thickness gauge I mark the thick areas, areas where I need to remove wood with a squiggly line. You can see it at the top edge of the limb.

 And when floor tillering and I see an area that is bending I draw a line across the limb with an "X" where I don't want to remove wood. These markings help me keep things straight in my head as I tiller the bow.

[Tradslinger]

thanks for the scraper tip. I totally understand the marking the X so that you keep things straight in your head.

[Pat B]

Exactly. Anything I can do to keep what's in my head straight. 

 At this point in the build the staves edges have been sharp.


so from now on I'll be sure the edges on the back will be eased a bit by slightly rounding it


initially I had planned to use the stave as is without heat corrections but I decided otherwise. Clamped to the caul you can see how far out this limb is


so as I always do I coated the belly with cooking oil


Got my clamps and small luan plywood clamp pads standing by and started heating at the fades. to get the limb over enough I place a small pad to use as the fulcrum for the initial bend


I used the wooden clamp to pull the limb around

[Pat B]

while the "C" clamps and pads pull the limb down on the form. With each clamp I heat the immediate area until I can't hold my thumb on it and clamp.
 

The clamp on the end brings the crooked end around.


After the corrected spots have been heated and clamped I go over the whole limb with the heat gun then leave it clamped until the next session.
 This is how the stave looked when I first clamped it to the form at the handle. We'll compare this later with the other limb done.

[Bob Barnes]

thanks for the build...love the form...it looks exactly like the one I have used since back when Gary Davis let me copy one of his first cauls... if it works, why change it?   

[Pat B]

Gary and Pappy at Twin Oaks inspired this form.

[Bob Barnes]

Gary and Pappy at Twin Oaks inspired this form.

 

[Pappy]

Looking very good Pat, you are coming right along.
 Pappy

[Pat B]

Thanks, Pappy. It's good to get wood chips under my feet again. 

[gutpile]

nice thread Pat..4" fades... thats a two handle bow haha... I never profile a bow till I got my back done.. ... thin rings I guess you can get away with it.. definitely eliminates a lot of chasing..gut

[Pat B]

Gut, even though I drew out the handle on the stave I won't cut it out until the bow gets to first brace. As you know this is so I can move the handle and the tips(they are at about 1" now) for that matter to help achieve proper string tracking. The 4" fades are sorta traditional with ALBs so I thought I would go with that option. Generally my fades are 2" in most cases but sometimes even 1 1/2" fades.

[gutpile]

I was referring to roughing out profile ...side profile... until back is done.. most of my osage is from Ga.. fat rings.. fat earlywood too... ... watching your thread ..looking good.. gut

[Pat B]

Even though I start out drawing a traditional handle from the side view I usually go with a bulbous handle which will change that profile quite a bit in the end.

[gutpile]

I do exact same thing.. however this 54" I'm piddling with has a very small handle only 1 1/4 at its widest point on bow which will probable get reduced a lil still...handle area is about an inch now but thin due to stave issues ... I kinda like it for now..and its going to get smaller..LOL... gut