Started my trade bow - full draw and shipped

[Acutus]

AMAZING!!!

[juniper junkie]

that is looking good. how much of the heating and bending  do you think  may come back? I have worked Osage before and if those bores are chewing through that stuff then you dont want them to get a good bite on ya. really enjoying watching the progress. when I first saw that twisted piece of wood I immediately thought of Keenan not really sure why, maybe it is because he likes that kind of bow wood to work on or maybe it is just his personallity keep up the good work.

[Elktracker]

WOW dont know how I missed this considering im on here day and night  you really impressed me with this piece of wood man I agree with other when they said it looked rough to start now its looking great! You are definately great at what you do! I look forward to following this, thanks for doing this build allong

Josh

[Keenan]

George that is looking great!. Do you think you can fill the bore hoes?  Looking at the limb twist they look like they might offset each other and balance out.  I'm not sure what JJ is taliking about, He knows that all I ever work on is prestine perfectly straight and knot free wood 

[gstoneberg]

Thanks guys.  I'm not that good, just persistant.

I'm wondering if  I didn't get the wood quite hot enough when I did the sideways bend JJ.  It takes a lot more heat it seems to go sideways than add deflex/reflex or take out twist.  But it does look like the bends sort of even out and take the string through the handle so I'm going to get a string on it before I do anything radical now.  Be interesting to see how it draws and if anything changes as it starts bending.  Might have to do more heat bending later.

I had not planned to fill that borer hole.  It's near the tip and will have an overlay on it so it doesn't compromise the back of the bow...but since I need to cut a string nock there and it goes through and through close to the edge, I'll have to.  It is unusual for a borer to go straight down clear through the limb like that one did.  I normally do super glue and sawdust, but this will be tougher to fill so I may add some sawdust to epoxy and make a putty to push down through.  The smaller borer spots (and there are 2) I will definitely use superglue on.  It is supposed to get up to 90 today, so it'll be a good day to get epoxy to flow.

I have some really crooked staves Keenan if you want to have some fun with yellow wood.  I took a look yesterday at 3 or 4 bad ones to see if I could find a straight enough spot to get billets out of and I'm not sure there is.   The wood I cut last year and this year is much straighter, though still pretty crooked compared to the beautiful staves I see on here all the time.  I need to go cut a couple more trees.  For some reason I normally do that in the middle of the summer so it's pretty miserable .

George

[criveraville]

I like those curves

[ErictheViking]

Good job George. I think this whole post is an excellent example of just how twisted a piece of wood can be and still(if persistant) make it work. I don't have that kind of patience.

[DEllis]

Looks good George. The epoxy and sawdust should work well to fill those holes.
Darcy

[gstoneberg]

Thanks guys.  Darcy, here's the after shot on those borer holes now filled with glue and sawdust.  I need to add a little more to the bottom one.

George

[DEllis]

Tip overlay will cover the top one? Are you gonna wrap some decorative thread over the other one once it is filled completely? Man I bet you smash those borers real good when you find them alive eh?.......punching good wood all full of holes
That looks like a knife project in the background there George You have a few irons in the fire I think........I know the feeling
Darcy

[gstoneberg]

Yes, the tip overlay will cover the top one.   I have cut string nocks now and sure enough the borer hole is right in the middle of the string nock on one side.  I will probably not wrap either of the other 2 as I'm leaning towards a snakeskin backing.  There won't be a problem with splinters as neither one will be in a bending part of the limb.  However, I often have them in bending portions of the limb and so far none have been a problem when the glue/sawdust plug is applied.  My draw knife usually does the honors on the borers when I come to them.  Sometimes they're so deep I have to use a nail to get them out, I do go after them with gusto.

Yep, sharp eyes there.  There are 2 like that.  I'm helping a couple brothers (aged 12 and 16) build.  Pretty obvious that I'm new to knife making.  You know there's another knife I want to be working on.  Not sure how soon I'll be able to.

George

[DEllis]

I was thinking of a wrap for looks but the snakeskin will be even better, I agree there will be no problem with splinters in those locations.
Have fun with the knives
Darcy

[johnston]

George you said that in your wood pile you had some crooked staves. In my view if they are worse than this one was it would be better to make yeller bow ties out of them than to make bows.
 
What are you using for heat ?

Lane

[gstoneberg]

LOL, I'm afraid most of the rest of that crooked wood is firewood.

I'm using a heat gun, so dry heat.  I do put olive oil on the wood to try and keep scorching down.

I've been working on this bow a little every day, but it is still not bending enough to take a picture of.  I really like the wider square limbs with the recurves and I think that will make them come out thinner than I'm used to.  The other 2 bows I'm working on have had more progress.  With the recurved tips I don't feel I can gain much draw weight by piking, so I'm going into floor tiller a little slower than I normally would.

Thanks,
George

[gstoneberg]

I've been taking it slow with the trade bow.  Boy does it have some string tension!  Today I strung it finally with a string 4" shorter than the bow.  It pulled the string all the way up to the belly again, pinning my fingers on the handle.  I was glad the stringer was still on the bow.  I went ahead and put it on the tillering setup.  Sadly, I did not get the bow perfectly horizontal.  I did take 2 pictures, one at "brace"



and one with a little bend in the limbs.



The left limb is a reflexed, recurved limb and the right limb is a deflex/reflex limb.  I'm encouraged that the differences seem to diminish as the bow is drawn.  That's all the further the limbs want to bend so far so I still have wood to remove.  Looks like my camera lens needs a good cleaning as well.

George