Hey all I have another osage stave that is dry and was cut in 06. Do you guys think I should recurve it or it is just too short to recurve. I was just going to use dry heat and bend it by hand but only a minor recurve not a severe one. How much will a small recurve help in such a short bow and should I even recurve it?
With very good tiller you will probably be able to get a 24" draw and I would let it bend through the handle. Kicking up the tips will improve the full draw string angle and is worth the effort with such a short bow. A couple of layers of sinew on the back will improve this short bow and make it more durable.
You may consider backing with rawhide or sinew. If you do a 22 in draw seems reasonable. You do need to recurve/semi recurve to improve the string angle. Jawge
You are probably stuck with about 47" NTN bow withthat stave unless you glue on something on the ends. That's pretty short for a full-draw bow.
I have made a couple 48" NTN bend-in-the-handle bows that drew 26". Recurving the last 4" or so was a necessity to keep string angle managable. They still stack like crazy and are harsh to shoot.
Now a 22" draw bow that you pull to the chest is a fun design to try. You don't have to recurve that short of a draw. Light arrows fly like mad out of this style bow.
Thanks guys I just started on it today.
lets see some pics
sorry all my shortbow is actually 53 inches i measured it a while ago and forgot and thought it was only 48 but thnx for your advice and im working on loading some pics of the bow before recurving and final tillering.
I messed up on the tips so I ended up making the whole thing way too thin. I then recurved it about 5 inches down with steam, its pretty severe recurve and just glued some rawhide onto it waiting for it to dry in the morning, while putting on the rawhide I noticed one recurve is down a little further than the other.... How should I fix this? I also would like to know the easiest way to make a bow pull about 15 pounds more after even a rawhide backing.