It's been awhile since I've posted a bow, but I've been building them nonetheless.  Here's a very simple osage flatbow with pyramidal limbs made as a Christmas gift.  It finished at 64" in overall length and 42#@28".  The stave was cut here in Nebraska back in 2010.  I'll give a quick pictorial synopsis of the build with a few steps missing here and there.

Here's the back profile of the stave:




And the side profile:




Chasing a ring:





Back finished:




Layout lines:




Roughed out to layout lines:

After shaping the riser and the limbs to thickness, it was time to begin tillering.  I start on a long string and then work my way to full brace height.  Although I will eventually want a positive tiller [i.e. a slightly weaker upper limb], I like to tiller the bow on the tree out to about 23" with both limbs equal.  That allows me to choose which limb I want as top and bottom and slowly dial my way into a positive tiller.  After 23", I begin weakening one limb and doing all of my work while drawing the bow in hand in front of a mirror.


But before all of that, after getting out to about 16" or so I like to induce some reflex using a heat gun and caul:




I let the bow sit on the caul overnight.  Here it is the next morning:




I let the bow rehydrate for about a week and then slowly work it back in on the tiller tree.  Here it is unbraced after working out to 23":




Because I'll be working the bow out from 23" to 28" in hand, I need to shape the riser.  This particular stave was a bit thin for comfort in the handle area, so I opted to add a couple laminations to beef it up.  The first is padauk followed by rosewood:






Here's the riser all shaped up and ready to shoot:

The next step before I can finish the tillering is nock overlays and string grooves.  I opted to use padauk.  Here's the progress, complete with double nocks for stringing:












After I got the bow tillered out to 28", it was time for a light staining with dark walnut, an arrow rest, and some spray finish.  Here's the riser all dolled up:

Here's the finished bow ready for delivery on Christmas day.  Thanks for looking!

Very nice, Curt..

Wow! Very nice once again.

Very nice. Great job. What is the width at the fade outs?

Nicely done! You make it look so easy...

Sweet bow, Curt! Nice job!  

Nice!  That is one finely crafted bow.

Very tasty! I'm always in awe of you all wood guys!  

Very nice indeed!

man that one turned out very nice.

Great job. Thanks for the picture post.

The biggest problem is.....

QuoteOriginally posted by cunruhshoot:
You make it look so easy...

Beautiful bow.  Nice job.
homebru

As always 4rest,      

Like the handle alot, too. That makes for easier shooting for those new to longbow & selbows!

Very Nice, what a wonderful Christmas gift.

Hello all and Merry Christmas, I am new to the forum and new to building traditional bows. I was wondering if there was anyone available to answer a question in regards to tip overlay?

If I am on the wrong forum, can you please point me in the right direction.

JHJ

This is the place to ask!  Start a new post and title it tip overlay questions.  You should get quite a few replies.