load of fence post

[Mounter]

I salute you.. I cut up about twenty , 50 year old hedge post a couple years ago for firewood.. incredibly dense stuff. Fully sharpened to dull blade in about 6 to 8 cuts. I still have 20 or so left.

Imma stick to fresh Osage, it cuts easier! Good luck dude!

[WhistlingBadger]

What a cool project, Randy.  Thanks for sharing it.  I hope you can turn it into a great shooter.
Thomas

[Hawkdancer]

Plus 2!  Plan for success and think through your moves before you make them.  It's easier to correct a slight opps than a major screw up!  Good thinking, Randy. Looks like the bow is progressing!
Hawkdancer!

[RandyN]

I don't want to bore you with all the details on the stave. It is coming along nicely and starting to take the shape of a bow. Like I said in an earlier post, I have put away the draw knife and I'm using my rasp, which has made the going even slower. I hope to have teeth left on the rasp at the end of this project. The wood is the hardest osage I have worked with, but it is also the pretties osage I have worked with. It is that dark rich orange/brown color that comes with age. I put string groves in the bow/stave yesterday but she still is not bending, so I'll wait to take a pic when she is bending on a tillering tree.

[RandyN]

I did some work on this the past few days. She looks more like a bow. Here are a couple pics. She is just starting to bend. Wants to spin when I try to put her on a tillering stick, so I need a little more work. One limb has a natural recurve and the other is straight. It does have a gradual recurve which starts at the center of the bow. The grain is straight enough that I can follow it on the belly to get a nice feathered appearance.

[RandyN]

Here is the overall bow and then a shot of the belly feathering.

[RandyN]

She is looking like a bow more everyday. First pic is the first time I pulled it on the tillering tree. Had to use a clamp to hold it on the tree. The other one is after working with a scraper today. No clamp.

[RandyN]

Good Morning,,, Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I have a possible problem developing with the bow. I have stress cracks running with the grain on the back of the bow. The plan for now is to fill them with Super Glue, LockTite 420, and then rawhide back the bow. This should help stabilize the back of the bow and hold everything together.

[Pat B]

Yep, superglue for sure and rawhide certainly won't hurt. Looking good so far with such a challenging stave(bunch of staves). 

[bradsmith2010]

i remember a thread where Simon, had a spot like that , and he wrapped it with linen twine,, I tried it on one of my snakey bows and it worked nice,, rawhide and super glue sounds good too,,

[upstatenybowyer]

You should pay special attention to that spot where the crack runs off the side. I always wrap sinew around spots like that. Never had it fail. I'm sure linen would work too.

[Pat B]

The stresses in these area are hard to figure. A wrap is always an option but hard to tiller through the wrap. These kind of situations are
 always a bit of a guess anyway. This is where experience kicks in. You guys are taking the bull by the horns! some folks make wood bows, some MAKE WOOD BOWS! This is what it"s all about. Making what works with what''s is availabe.
 

[rps3]

From what I see, I would consider removing that check that is running out the side of the limb entirely. By following the grain it looks like you only need to take a little wood off the side, and those other checks would still remain in the limb.

[RandyN]

Thank you for all the good suggestions. This has turned out to be more of a challenge than I originally thought it would be. I am going to try to explain what I think is going on with the cracks that are showing up once the bow is nearing brace. Now it is still at a low brace on the long string, about 3" which means these cracks should only get worse as time goes on.

Here are a couple more pics that might help explain the problem area. I now have the handle area laid out on the back. This might need to change. Took a pic of the center line of the bow toward the twisted limb. Used a ruler to help show where the fades should go on a normal bow and where the problem area is at. The goal is to make the limb stiffer than usual in the problem area. The limb should look funny and appear stiff at brace. Lets see if I can pull it off.

[RandyN]

Here is clearer pic of the area that has the twist that is causing the problem. One pic is of the back, where the cracks are starting,,the other is the belly side of the same area.