Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: hedgeapple on February 21, 2009, 04:48:00 pm
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Every once in awhile you'll be looking for silver and find gold. I went out on the farm to cut some black locust that had been uprooted by the ice storm a few weeks ago. Besides the BL I found an osage that had been uprooted. I didn't know that little guy lived in my locust patch. I got 2 logs 70 inches long. One was 6 and 3.5 inch diameter on the small end. Straight and look at those RINGS.
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looks very good hedgeapple :)
once again, I'm so damn jealous of you american osage cutters! :p
splitting will be hard on that big one, since the centre is so off you'll probably get a very thick and very thin stave or you ruin them...
it's been my experience that you really should split through the center otherwise you'll mess it up ;)
Nick
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Nice haul. Ice storms are good for something. ;)
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I'm thinking of splitting these along the dotted line. I know I might waste some by doing iit this way. But, it should insured that I get ONE GOOD stave from each.
Expert splitters feel free to advice me.
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yeah I think that'll do, haven't tried osage tho, since it doesn't grow here ;)
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those are some mighty thick rings, unless it's an illlusion. Will there be more than one ring on out in the limbs?
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Chesjen, That not much of an illusion. The outer ring on the bigger log (5 inches log, I guest before, just measured) is 3/8". Being new to this bow building thing, I didn't think about one ring being all or most of the limbs. Is that a problem?
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Lucky duck!
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hedgeapple,
if you're new you'd better make some easy board bows first, otherwise you'll be sorry later. first 10bows won't satisfy you, probably, so you'd better choose a cheaper and less rare wood for it.
one-ring limbs don't seem strange to me, but they might be an indication for lighter wood; it may be better to leave the limbs a little wider and longer.
Nick
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nope those look horrible, guess you will have to send them all to me for proper disposal ;D, that looks like a lot of good staves
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Nickf, thanks for the advice. I did make a board bow Sam Harper style. It didn't satisify me. At best, it's ugly. :D And I did keep it on a long string too long during the tiller process and miscalculated the pull. The tiller is pretty good (could be improved some), but I ended up with a 30# @ 28" instead of the 45 I was hoping for. Lesson learned. So, I'm wanting a bow that I would like if it does turn out, instead of a bow that turns out fine but I don't like.
Do agree that less rare and cheaper wood is probably a better choise than using osage. As for the cheaper part, I have probably 30 osage trees on my farm. 95% of them are SNAKEY and better left till have alot more experience. I cut 2 osage log last Oct and cut this one yesterday, because it had uprooted. I also cut 9 BL logs from uprooted trees yesterday. We've let our grow up to better deer and quail habitat instead of being the pasture land that it was. I literally have 100's of ash and elm sapplings in the 2 to 4 inch diameter range. On my parents farm, I have virtually unlimited access to oak, hickory and beech. I'm not trying to brag or be a smart A**, but not counting time and a little chainsaw gas, it's cheaper for me to harvest these trees than it is to buy a board. And hopefully, I learn more by cutting and splitting myself than I would going to Lowes. I do expect to ruin 5 or more staves per one than I get right. That's why osage bow building will be further down the road. I just want to have them stored and curing for when I'm ready.
I just finished roughing out an ash sappling to set aside to cure. It's a knotty little guy and I'm sure I'm going to screw it up. But, it's all about the journey not the destination. :)
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Looks good. Good point about following the crown of the log as you split. There's info on my site. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/