Hi, all,
I decided to push the limits on this one and see how much weight I could get out of this 15 year old osage stave without it breaking or taking a lot of set. It ended up puling a full 75# at 25", which is about maxing out my arm (I actually draw slightly under 25".). In fact, I'll have to do some upper body work to be comfortable shooting more than a few arrows out of this one. Maybe I'll use it as a pig-sticker - those critters can be tough to penetrate sometimes.
I finished this one up in October, in between Oktoberfest celebrations. Since then, I revisited the tiller and refinished it, so I think it's done this time. Around here, there was an Oktoberfest every weekend all month, and local breweries were all coming up with their own festbiers (Oktoberfest beers). I wanted to do some sort of dye job, while still using the golden color of the osage. So after getting inspired over a festbier, I got into the spirit and did a tricolor scheme to match the colors of the German flag. Hence the bow's name, "Festbow."
It's 59" ntn, tapering evenly from 1-1/2" to 3/8". After shooting it in, it held a bit of the recurve I had added to the tips, ending up with a slight R-D gull wing profile, with the tips just about even with the back of the handle. I put on deer antler tips at a pretty aggressive angle, but it held together anyway. I found some red leather lace in my scraps drawer that matched the color, so I did a simple handle wrap with it. After some experimenting, I rubbed some string-saver waxy stuff into the wrap to seal it a bit and give it a better feel and appearance. Shoots well, and definitely with authority.
Thanks for any critique or advice.
...Tom
