this is another of the staves called junk by a rather unhappy guy that came by the house to buy a stave. I just smile and say that's fine, I'll make a bow out of it. :-) maybe. It is a little small in the handle area, but other than a bit of snake, a great piece of wood.

the handle

the opposite limb now cooling. I will have to reheat and adjust the other tip because it is a little to straight./ not curvy enough for my liking. I might work on it a MOJAM next week. We will see.

and here it is off the caul.

Nice looking piece of "junk"  :D

I have only seen junk osage very few times. Most osage has a bow in it.   Nice "JUNK"!

I think I need to move the deflex/reflex closer to the handle. What do you think? I'm still not happy with this caul yet. I've made one fromm it and have seen two break from friends bows.

looks pretty good. im always amused when i tell people what i can do with the wood thats just scattered about. i may try to build a caul myself for the two hickory bows i have in the making, at least to use it on the shorter of the two to help with string angle and finger pinch/stack

R/D bows are a little tricky to tiller. Your caul leaves the tip about even with the handle (at least with that length stave) and you will likely end up with a couple inches of string follow after tillering and shooting in. Looks like a good start to a fine bow. Keep us posted.

That should make for a pretty profile but, I agree with Shaun on the set thingy...

I think it just shows who has it to make a bow out of what God put out there. If it was all "perfect" wood where would our character bows come from?

I've had some that "Stevie Wonder" could chase the ring on, but I'm not convinced that it makes the better bow. Some of those ultra thinned ring woods can sure fling and arrow and seem to last forever without taking any set to speak of.

If you can make a bow out of the "Bad" stuff you can surely make one out of the rest. If you can only make one from the "good" stuff you got a ways to go in becoming a good selfbowyer. IMHO

God bless,Mudd

God bless,Mudd

The last bow that came off this caul broke in the handle at 60@24. It had an inch and a half of set and was only needing two more inches. It was an inch and a half wide until midlimb and then tapered down to half inch tips.  He never got to shoot it, but I had similar results with my personal bow. It took one inch of set and has a half in of follow after an hour or so shooting. It always comes back after unstringing though. Both bows are sixty in. ntn
anyone else have some pics of cauls?

here are the two bows off this caul thus far.

now thats nice indeed  

DSV these two bows look absolutely fantastic to me. Love those curvy lines, SAWEEEEEET !

----------
Andy

See, I knew that caul would make some nice profile lines and with lines like that I think the little set they've taken on is not an issue at all. Great looking bows there!

I'm glad you agree joe. I think it gives the right amount of set. I think this deflex/reflex is easier to tiller for me. It seems like I can repeat results with more control off this form, but it still needs work to be even on moth sides.

You can throw your junk out at my place. LOL

Looks good. Some guys are just never happy.

Can an osage board be bent into r/d?

YES it can!!!! As long as it is thin enough to take it.