Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: SLIMBOB on April 07, 2019, 02:49:26 pm
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This bow is from a stave I cut in.... 1995 I think. I chased a ring on it a few years after that and let it sit and season...for about 10 years. Sometime around 2008 I worked it down to bow size. It has a weird shape to it. The limbs exit the handle at different angles, and honestly, I just didn't know what to do with it. I threw it in the corner and moved on to other more user friendly staves. 2012 or so I pulled it back out, worked on it a little. I flipped the tips on it and one of the limbs split just a tad bit, so I did underlays to fix it, but again, I was just not excited about the whole thing. So again I put it in the corner and moved on. It's aged well over those years and the color is really nice. I have looked at this thing a thousand times over all this time and could never get my head around what to do with it. It just looked weird with a string on it no matter how much I manipulated the shape with heat. Long story short, I finally finished it this weekend. I did a mild R/D shape with it. I didn't want to scrape or sand on it so that I could maintain the dark patina so I heated and bent the limbs here and there and tempered a few areas. It still looks a little odd from different angle, but I really like it. I'm glad I waited till now to finish it. I haven't had it on the scale yet but it's tillered to 27 inches, somewhere around 60 lbs. It shoots really sweet. Hope you like it!
Old Osage From a wind break in Guthrie Texas
Mild R/D shape
64 inches ttt
1.5 inches at the fades with a straight taper to just over 1/2 inch at the nocks
I burnished the entire bow tip to tip and the wood has a glassy finish to it.
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Few more and the money shot.
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Pretty neat...’95 eh? Almost 25yr project. The hickory I’ve been posting about I cut about 2002...
Peace
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looks good to me and now i also know what aged osage looks like
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Looks smooth and sweet!nice one!
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nice bow,, congrats,, :)
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Very nice Slimbob. Glad you waited till now to.
Bjrogg
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Paulc...yep 1995. Good luck with yours. Looking forward to you posting it.
Thanks DW. Old Osage is beautiful ain't it!
bushboy and brad. Thanks guys.
bjrogg. Thanks man.
One quick aside. The backstories on these are always the interesting part for me. Most every tree I have cut, not all but most, there is a memory of the day, or the guys I was with that day. Or something that occurred. Met a guy on this trip, in Very rural Guthrie, who collected Whitney Blankets. Had a house full of them still in the packages. I love the Whitney Blankets, but I never thought I would meet a collector of them. It was cool, just...odd. He lead us to the Bodark we got to cut.
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Sweet! You gunna hunt with it? (SH) :-D
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I love the color of old osage. Cool bow.
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Very cool. I love the braced and FD profiles. Looks fast. 8)
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Doesnt look odd at all to me. Good looking bow with a cool story.
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Deerhunter. Probably so. It’s a heavier weight than my typical build. I shot it some today in between rain showers and it thumps the target.
Pat B. Thank you sir and I agree, nothin prettier than old Osage.
Upstate. Thanks! Your bows are always classy.
rps3. Thanks. I started this bow as a newbie. I had only made a few. I wasn’t doing much heat bending back then and when braced, this bow was not pretty. The top limb was 1/2 inch farther from the string than the bottom. I think it’s much better now. Thanks!
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Nice bend on that one Bob, looks totally balanced...Nice to see you back posting your work...
Don
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Thats's a nice one SLIMBOB. What's the brace height on that? It looks short.
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Hey Don. Thanks. It's as balanced as I can get. You can't tell easily from the pictures, but there is a knot at the top fade, and the limb beyond it is on a different plane than it's lower counter part. It's as close to right as I can get it.
goomba. Thanks. I have the brace height at 5 1/2 inches at the arrow pass. It seems to behave well at that distance. Still shooting it in and may adjust it some.
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Nice full draw on that.those old bows and staves as much as i like that bright yellow are my favorite .ive got 3 old ones that make my mind remember things every time i look at them.
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Nice work on that one! I wouldn't mind seeing a closer shot of the underlays if it's not too much trouble.
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That's a beauty... good things come to those who wait
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TomBo. I have a few pictures of them. I will try and get them up for you. I used cedar because of its lite weight and I have used it for this purpose before. Not completely sure it’s the best choice because it is very soft and the string alone will leave marks on it. It works, but a harder wood may be a better choice.
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Love those curves, Bob!
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Some wood take years to become a beauty! Like the tree behind you!
Very nice one. Finally I know how aged osage looks like
Martin
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The underlays. I did these more than a decade ago. It works, but I would probably do them a bit differently today. Cedar is lite which was my reason to use it but as you can see, it takes some abuse from the string. 2 or 3 thinner lams would be an easier glue up and I would use something a bit harder.
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That bow looks awesome. The profiles are spot on, really nice.
I'm with you in case of the cedar underlays.
And aged the osage is dream color.
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Simon. Thank you sir. I’m happy with. As always, your work serves as a model for a journeyman like myself.
ohma2. Thanks, and Osage rules, but aged Osage...another level. 😊
TimBo, stix, stickhead. Thanks guys.
B2W. Thanks. That tree behind me is a big Live Oak. It was struck by lightening (we believe) and nearly died. A lateral branch survived and has grown into this. Neat tree for sure.