First try at Osage

[Muskyman]

Pictures

[Muskyman]

Doubled up on the first

[Muskyman]

This is how much set it took after final tilleringand shooting it about 20 or so shots

[superdav95]

Congrats mike on getting a bow out of that stave.  How does it shoot?

[Muskyman]

Shoots okay Dave. I probably need to tune it to the right arrows to get it shooting better. Seems faster then my hickory bow I built.. Seems to be  shooting left pretty hard. I might cut a arrow shelf into it and see if that helps it. I’m going to back it with some thin rawhide I bought. Also might try to heat treat it on a reflex form before I put the rawhide on it.
Do you back string your bow before you glue the rawhide on it? I saw someone do it on a video once. Just curious if I need to do that..

[superdav95]

Rawhide can be put on with little backset in bow.  I would carefully heat a little backset in your bow but don’t go as hot as you would with white wood and then add the rawhide with mild back stringing.  Should give you good results. If you go to hot it could make it too brittle.   As far as shooting left it could be a few things going on that may not be fixed with cutting a shelf.  The shelf might help some but you will most definitely need to bare shaft shoot your bow to see what needs to be tweaked.  Arrow spine probably has more to do with your pulling left or kicking left if that’s what going on.  The shelf will get you slightly closer to center shot then no shelf but still need to get proper arrow tune.  The bare shaft will tell all really.  Look up bare shaft tuning on YouTube there a a number of good instructions on there to explain it.  Best of luck

[bentstick54]

I build my bows with no shelf like yours and yes the arrow points left because of it. With the proper spined arrow, the arrow will go where it’s pointed. If you sight down the shaft at full draw, you should find that will help correct the situation. I used to be a totally instinctive shooter when shooting recurves, and when I started making selfbows I would consistently shoot left. Once I forced myself to “ sight “ down the length of the shaft it pushed my shooting back to the right. ( Right handed shooter). Give it a try before you cut a shelf.
The bow looks pretty darn good to me. Congratulations.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Mind if I ask why you are adding rawhide? You have already fully tillered and shot your bow. It must be solid. Rawhide will only slow your bow down. Your tiller looks good from Michigan. If you are looking down your arrow and its on target, yet still impacts left, your arrows are too stiff. A shelf can change that only because as the arrow moves closer to center the needed spine increases so the same arrow that shows stiff now may shoot good 3/8" closer to center.

[Muskyman]

Bentstick, I’ve pretty much shot recurves instinctive my whole life. And yes I site down the shaft, basically with my peripheral vision. Shaft pointed at the target with my focus on where I wanted to hit.
I haven’t gotten into the exact cause for my arrows going left yet but, I’m sure it’s more arrow tuning then probably anything else. I tried to take some slo-mo videos of a few shots and best I could tell I have a nock left flight. Also thought I saw some nock up in one of my arrows. only have a set of test arrows that go 45 to 65 lbs. need better video to say for sure. My old eyes can’t really see the arrow flight like I used to. I’m not wanting to cut a shelf into my bow was just a first thought on getting my arrows shooting straight. I really need to get myself a fletching jig and a bunch of arrows to test with or at least a bunch of full length arrows once I get this bow finished up and to the point I can dial in on the exact cause of my problem. I’m like a lot of people on here in that, I don’t really like the look of a shelf on a self bow..
Thanks Dave for the input on the rawhide. I was kinda thinking if I cooked some reflex into this bow I probably wouldn’t need much else after that, before the rawhide goes on. Will the rawhide increase draw weight? If it does I’m assuming it can be reduced by a little scraping or sanding. I really don’t want to go any higher with that. This old guy can’t shoot 75 pounds anymore.
For the stave I started with I’m happy with it so far.
Pearl Drums, if you had seen my post on trying to chase a ring on this particular stave it would be clear to you why. Rings were super tiny and it was my first try at chasing a ring and after violating ring after ring I ended up giving up on it. It has a violated ring in a spot or two so I felt that backing it was my only option. Stave was basically a piece of scrap I pulled out of my firewood pile after I got done processing some Osage I cut earlier this year. It was only about 1/2 inch on one end and 1-1/2 on the other. So that’s basically why.

[PEARL DRUMS]

Fair enough. Usually that would be added before you start bending a compromised stick. This one seems to have faired quite well with no backing, violations or not. Something must have worked in your favor. Rawhide wont add any draw weight or hold and added reflex. It will make a bow break more safe when or if it happens.

[Muskyman]

Good to know pearl drums. The rings are tiny, maybe a 1/16th or so. The violations are just little oval spots. Two of them. One is mid limb and the other is close to the fades. I hope it doesn’t break but I never thought this was going to be a long term bow but more of a way for me to practice making one. A kind of getting my feet wet thing. I’ve got 6-8 decent Osage staves drying out that I processed in late September. I wanted to try and chase a ring and make a bow so I dug this piece out of the scrap pile.
Just never could quite make it end to end on it chasing a ring. I might take one of my pieces with much thicker rings down to a really rough bow shape to speed the drying up a bit later this winter..

[PEARL DRUMS]

All good plans you have in your head. You have the right idea roughing a bow out now. Give it 2-3 months and its ready, especially in the drier winter months.  As far as this bow is concerned. I would shoot the snot out of it as-is and see what happens. I'd bet it wont break. Not always, but most often a bow that wants to break will break as soon as you start doing any major bending.

[bradsmith2010]

rawhide would be nice,,even if its just in your head,, it looks good too,,

[Will B]

Congrats on a nice Osage bow. You did a great job and got great advice here

[Muskyman]

Thanks gentlemen. Yes I did get good advice. Appreciate everyone’s input. I’m learning a lot on this site about making bows. And I realize that I’ve got a very long road to travel. About the only thing I’ve got going for me is once I get a good one made I’ll be able to shoot it. Always an instinctive shooter and never cared for compound bows. Shot my recurve while almost everyone else had a compound. I remember well many years ago shooting in a 3D shoot a guy showed up with a Osage self bow. He let me look at it (un-strung) I still remember that bow and remember thinking how really cool that thing was. He wasn’t the maker, I think it was a guy from Jamestown, OH that made it for him. Any way never cared much for compound bows and I’m betting I can make a deer just as dead with my self built Osage or hickory bow.