After a couple weeks of a hectic schedule including lock-ins with junior high students, baby showers, and funerals I had some time this morning to work on the bow.  I've got the tips thinned down, a final sand, and gave the handle a dry run.  I'm about to spray on a finish and glue the handle wrap up and getting so close to sending it out.  

Sad thing about it all is when I had the wife come see the bow shoot my first two shots were touching.  Not sure if I can get rid of this one  

Here are a couple of pics of the handle wrap before the sanding was done.

I had a little setback today. After putting on 4 coats of Tru-Oil over the last few days I took her out today to fling a few arrows. Boy is she sweet! Zips a 600gr hill cane arrow like it was made for her, she's quiet and pretty soft in the hand. After shooting about 30 arrows I noticed the bottom limb wasn't bending quite enough. She still had a few pounds she could loose and still be within the range...so off to the shop I went. A few scrapes on the bottom limb and 30 pulls on the tree, a few more scrapes and more tree work and once she looked good I put her on the scale and she is pulling 55#@28"(weight range 45# to 55#). I think I'll leave her be.  
 I sanded down the belly and feathered the edges of the Tru-Oil finish and added my first new coat to the belly of the lower limb. This is one of the reasons I like Tru-Oil for a finish. Repairs are so easy and you'll never know I had scraped off the old and added new.
 I'll try to get some pics this afternoon to share with you guys. She has an interesting but visually effective backing and cool handle wrap.

Be sure and get a close up of the back, I've been wanting to see what that was on there ever since you posted the first pics a couple pages back.
Don't tease me anymore Pat!  

Lookin Good Goose! I've thought about doing a leather wrap just like that one you got there, but wasn't sure how to make it stay put. If you wouldn't mind, maybe you could show me how you go about it with a little how to?

Nice job, somebody's gonna get a nice Osage selfbow.  

Here ya go SEMO.  I started out by attaching the floppy rest where I want it (On the side that you can't see on the picture).  Then, I superglue the beginning of the leather vertically towards the middle of the handle (typically on the side opposite of the floppy rest).  I'll throw down a few lines of contact cement vertically (3-4 per side of bow) to wrap over.  I then wrap over the superglued section continuously pushing it together keeping it close and tight.  When I get toward the bottom with 3-4 wraps left I'll loop a piece of fishing line and wrap over it.  I finish by cutting the leather threading it into the fishing line and pulling through the previous 3-4 wraps (making sure to leave enough to pull through).  After pulling through the excess I'll throw in some more superglue near the tuck and where I snip the extra bit.  Work it together and tada.  I really hope that made sense and if anyone else has other ways they do it feel free to chime in.

The bows getting close!

great tutorial goose!

Great bow Goose ! Pat, lookin forward to the new pics !

Here's what I've got so far. As you can tell, she isn't stovepipe straight. I am going to use dry heat (probably a heat gun) to try to straighten it. My question is....do I try to straighten it at the handle? Or at the limbs? Or both? I'm thinking the handle, that way I don't mess up the snakey upper limb in the pick below.




Here is a shot from the lower limb that also has a nice curve in it.



And also a very distinct (almost black) growth ring where there are two clearly different colors of yeller wood. This concerns me. If you follow the black ring on up the limb it actually turns into a ring delamination. Luckily it won't end up in the bow, but still will be in the handle. Thoughts?



Everyone's bows are looking great!!! I've been following along daily, but haven't posted anything yet. Keep up the good work from KS.

Thanks for the tips Goose, I gotcha. Just like doing a serving except on a larger scale with bigger material. The explanation was real good.

Tyler- From what I see in the first pic I would personally try to pull the center of the bow in line with the tips so you don't loose the snakey part. As long as the tips line up you should be good, doesn't matter a whole lot how it wanders in between the two. As long as your 3 points line up......Bottom limb tip....Handle.....Top limb tip and those are the 3 points your concerned with. Some heat and steady pressure in the center of the bow while supporting each tip should bring it all in line. I've actually done this before I even had a heat gun by using steam. It takes longer, but I used what I had available to me at the time and it worked.

This is just MY opinion, others may have different solutions and I can't actually hold your bow blank and look at it myself, so consider other opinions before you just take my word for it. If I'm seeing what I think I am in your pics, it's the center portion that's out of alignment and not so much the tips, so if that's the case you should try to pull that center portion in line with the tips. Hope all that made sense?
Good Luck.

Oh and about the ring delam......I've had the entire center heart wood portion on some staves seperate the "core" completely from the outer 1/3 portion of a stave. I have no idea why or how to stop it, but it does happen. It's got something to do with the drying process and I've actually made a bow from that portion of the core that seperated itself from the outside 1/3 of the rest of the stave. That's the good part anyway, but in your case it's not a good thing. I guess if it comes completely apart you could always sand it down flat and glue the handle back on? That's probably about the only option I can see, and hopefully it doesn't get into your limbs.

Kansan, You need to put some oil on fade and handle area and put you some blocks of scrap about six inches on both sides of that and bend it past where you want it to stay a little.

As far as the ring delam, soak it in plenty of CA glue and it should ne fine.

Stiks

Thanks to PatB for sending me what I need to start on my bow.  I started a bit thinning the boo tonight.  Should be able to get a decent chunk of time on it this weekend  

Thanks guys....hopefully Sunday I can get back on it....after shed hunting of course! After reading over on the POWWOW about everyone's luck i'm fired up.

Stiks - peanut oil? veggie oil? 10W-30? (just kidding)

i think its time i posted up. i have had some help in getting an osage stave for the swap. thankyou so much stiks-n-strings. i went to work on it immediately.i have to say i really wasn't prepaired for the fight i was fixin to get. stiks and i talked on the phone some , he told me that he thought i could get 2 out of this stave so i attempted to split it so i could get 2 staves, wrong.i did not split they way i would have wanted for sure. i ended up with one good stave and a 6' long wedge   :mad:  i went to debark and prep the stave for chasing a ring got through the sap wood and what do we have? on one end of the stave i had some thin rings that wrapped over the back from right to left, by the time i got to the other end of the stave the thin rings wrapped from left to right.what a fight it took me almost a week to get to a good ring. i did my bow layout, pyramid design 64" long. got the bow roughed out and started to floor tiller. i had another fight with a belly ring thatjust didnt want to bend at all. i was also keeping in mind to get to a certain limb thickness for heating in some reflex. wrong! getting past that particular ring to get to the right thickness for bending brought me way past floor tiller and way under weight for the length i was shootin for     i talked to pat on the phone yesterday about my issues with this stave, he gave his recomendations, thanx again pat, your wisdom and guidance is more than welcome with me. well i proceeded to follow the new plan of attack and piked the stave in my attempt to gain weight. some pics to follow shortly of where im at now. ruddy

ok here is where im at. i piked the bow to 61" t-t and went to the long string, here are some pics of the stave

I gather from your description Ruddy that you attempted to split the stave before removing the bark and sapwood? I don't do that anymore just for the reason you described.

I remove all bark and sapwood then chase the stave down to the first ring so I can get a real good look at what I will need for at least 1 good bow, then if there's enough left over I will try for a second one, if not then I'm satisfied just getting the 1 good bow out of it.

Then before I split, I lay out the dimensions I'll need for my targeted bow and run a string from end to end. Draw a line down the center leaving plenty of wood to get my good bow out of, then leave at least and extra 1/8" and the next step is to score a line the entire length of the stave. Either using a skill saw or a dremel with a wood blade attachment. I score as deep as I can then start splitting from the middle out to the ends. Most generally the split will follow the score, but there are never any guarantees.

Best choice would be a large ban saw and cut it the entire length and leave nothing to chance.
I know this doesn't help your situation much at this point, but food for thought the next time.

I hope you get it to come around.
Good Luck man.

im now back with the long string at this new length. im going to try to tiller this bow carefully . more pics soon. ruddy

I'm glad to see you are "working around" that one, Ruddy. It's a pretty piece of wood IMO. Here's wishing you the best of luck with the new change of direction.

I agree with Semo, you have to get the bark and sapwoof off first just to see what you are working with...unless it is obviously big enough for 2 staves. If that is the case I can usually get 3 staves with the removal of a belly split.
 Ruddy, she is coming along nicely. You are doing exceptional work especially since this os basically only your second bow from scratch. Well done!!!

Got home from work yesterday and found  a early birthday surprise waiting for me- a long white tube- from Greg!!!

The pictures don't do this bow justice- Greg you are one skilled craftsman- this bow is flawless and to top it off it shoots as good as it looks- thanks Bud- I'll treasure it.