Osage Bow (that hopefully doesn't take 10 months)

[Eric Krewson]

If you don't have a workbench with a vise you can build a shave horse out of scrap wood to hold your stave.

[bjrogg]

Marin, I could be wrong but if I'm seeing your picture correctly your draw knife is sitting on stave bevel down. I don't have the same type of draw knife so I'm not positive but pretty sure. By bevel down I don't think of cutting edge. My draw knife has one side that behind it's edge is flat and one side that is beveled behind edge. When beveled side is down you can tilt edge up or down and use bevel as a depth gauge to keep edge from digging in to much. I'm not sure I explained that so you can understand. It's kinda like skid plate for controling your cutting edge. If you want it to remove more wood you tilt edge down. If you just want to shave a tiny bit off you tilt cutting edge up more. If you flip over and use bevel side up, you give up this control for a more aggressive tool. You have to be careful though as it's much more difficult to control.
Please if I'm wrong about the position of this knife someone please correct me.
Bjrogg

[Marin]

Bjrogg,
The bevel side is up. If it was down, the side showing would be of pleltly flat. And the placement and position of the drawknife is not entirely accurate as I had to use two hands to get a pic, so I positioned the draw knife so that it would balance on the wood. The little scrape of wood made below it is accurate.
I thoght that if I wanted to remove more wood, I should use bevel side up but is it just better to always use bevel side down?

[Eric Krewson]

150 bows and somewhere around 300 osage stave cleaned up with a drawknife and I have never used mine bevel up. Some folk use theirs bevel up so it is a matter of personal preference, no right or wrong way to use one.

[Mo_coon-catcher]

I always run mjne bevel down and can make quick work of a stave. Plus with just a little angle shift you can go from takiking 1/4" chunks to paper thin whisper of wood. And if you want to take a large chunk you can jusst use it as a splitting wedge and split off a 3/4" tgick piece the length of a limb.

Kyle

[Marin]

Well I tired bevel side down and found that it still works great for taking off large pieces of wood. Thanks guys.
I thinned the belly down and am starting to get the stave into a board shape. I did have a problem with thinning down one of the sides. The side in Question has many knots and I found that it is much harder to deal with these knots on the belly than on the back. I try going around and  the knife gets caught and takes out a large piece of wood after several hacks.  How do you guys deal with knots on the belly? It's making it very hard to thin out this side of the stave.
The first 2 pics attached show the knotted half in question

[Marin]

Two more photos showing he thickness of the knotted half of the stave compared to the unknotted half and a part of the knotted half of the stave that was a bit hard. It appears that a knot that came out on another side of the osage branch was left over and I took it out completely with the draw knife but i am kind of afraid that I did something wrong. Do you guys think it looks  fine?

[Marin]

 Sorry, need to repost those two photos

[Marin]

How do you guys deal with knots when thinning down te belly side of the bow? I'm having trouble with  these areas.

[Pat B]

Don't worry about knots on the belly. Just reduce them as you reduce the belly. I usually add super glue in all knots, front and back just for insurance.

[Marin]

Thanks pat, but I'm finding that my draw knife seems to get caught in and stuck in the knots as I am trying to reduce them. How do you deal with this?

[Eric Krewson]

You will find the need to have a course rasp in your bow making journey. You can probably knock the belly down quicker with a horseshoe rasp than you can with a drawknife, especially through the knots.

A horseshoe rasp is around $20 at Tractor Supply.

[Marin]

So you use a rasp on the knots?

[Marin]

Just wondering, what the difference between a horsehoe rasp and a regular rasp? I have a Nicholson rasp which I initially used for the back but it took a very long time, so is a horsehoe rasp larger and more gritty?

[Mo_coon-catcher]

Here's my Ferreira rasp. The biggest difference is size size, and the size of the teeth. It makes quick work of anything I take it too. It works up a sweat too. For hossing wood, co get the most power and quickest removal by holding the handle in the left hand, angle it at a 45* towards me. Stabilize the front with my right hand then sort of pull with both hands towards me. I got mine for $20 from orcheln.

Kyle