So here's the deal.  South goes north and finds a matching limb.  What can I say.  It's the middle of winter and I'm board of the normal orange bow and the normal white bow.  So I thought I would change it up a little.  

I had two lonely billits that have been patiently waiting for a match up with no avail. One is osage from OK (2009 OJAM), the other iron wood (Hop hornbeam from good old Wisconsin). Then the other day these two billits were gettin close to one another under the table so I thought I would help them out.  They got married this last sunday at the church of bandsaw bonding.  It was a short wedding, right to the point.  They said their vows and I slapped them with glue, clamped them, and let them do their thing under the table.

Their honey moon is over and the clamps are off, and now its time to tiller.


Anyone else ever try this before?  There are some design concerns that will come into play, like strength.  Grain run off, etc.  Any advice or wise a@#. comments are welcome.

I have learned that laughing while making bows makes for funner shooting!  And this one is has already got me rolling!

Hoot n shoot    

Gary  Davies made one it was made from Yew and osage !

I did one from hop hornbeam and mulberry, turned out well.  Backed it with cherry bark and gave it to my brother.  Sorry don't have any pics.

It should tiller out like any other bow. Don't worry if both limbs are different thicknesses(they probably will be) but tiller it so both limbs bend evenly and together.

That looks great! I love the jointing, it gives it a very unique "pool cue" look. Let us know how it pans out.  

This looks really cool.  I am going to have my first crack, errr I mean attempt at splicing billets pretty soon, and this is exactly the splice and handle type I want to use.  I hope it looks halfway as good as yours!

looks like an inter-racial relationship.  Very cool, very progressive.    

Cool...also to add to what pat said...also make sure both limbs weigh the same so you don't have one limb heavier than the other,as this can happen with two different wood types with different specific gravities..it'll cause some shock if they aren't equal...if both limbs are bending the same and evenly,and both limbs weigh the same you'll be fine. A simple way to check if both limbs weigh the same is to balance the bow on your finger tip..if it balances on center,then both limbs will weigh the same.

That should look sweet , it already does but I can't wait to see it finished  

I like it!

That's cool.  I always wanted to try that.  Those are my two favorite bow woods.  Should make a fine bow.

Cool project, looking forward to seeing it complete.

That will be nice I bet. Great job on the splice!

Thanks for the comments.  Tillering is going to start soon.  I have the edges rounded and handle worked.  I glued up some more billits.  I think they turned out well.




The osage limb has more deflex and reflex it it.  I'm leaning on matching the osage to the ironwood limb.

now thats cool      well done

awesome. Never attempted billets yet. I hope you post pics of the finished bows.

Here are the results of a few weeks of bow night.  Some buds and I have been toughing out old man winter by having our weekly bow making gathering in the basement of the house..  This osage/ironwood bow has been challenging in the last weeks.

As far as the design goes, I made the top limb ironwood.  The top limb is 1/2 inch longer than the bottom so I figured make the upper limb the lighter wood to make up for the lower density than osage. The ironwood limb is 2 inches wide where as the osage is 1 1/2" wide.  The osage limb is still a little heavier when I give it the old balance on the finger test.

Right now I have the bow bending at 34# @ 24".  I would like to end up at 38# @28.

unstrung

braced

24"

My friend Dave has a bow called "Yew-sage"
Gary Davis put it together as a blank and Dave finished it out. It looks cool and according to Dave, shoots like a bow.
Yours looks good, nice tiller.

CTT

Wow! you couldn't shoot and post to many photos on this one. thats interesting, thanks for walking us along. looks like there is some beautiful wood beams in that work area of yours too!

That is awsome, keep up the good work.

Wish we had all them purty woods out west, heck not much in my particualr area, everything is on private or park land, or a few hours away.  :(