Quartersawn hickory

bigcountry · February 25, 2010, 11:57:00 AM

I bought a quarater sawn "clear" piece of osage. Almost straight grained with zero knots.

I don't see too many people building quarter sawn osage much. Is there a reason? It sounds like it would be ideal?

I also have a piece of 1/4" quartersawn hickory to back it. Any things I should watch out for? Any advise on dimensions?

I was thinking of 1.5" wide at fades. 2" long fades. 5" bulbous handle. straight 1.5" for 12" and then pyamiding to 1/2" tips (to start)

Does this sound good? Never made a hickory backed osage.

John Scifres · February 25, 2010, 12:34:00 PM

I've made a few self bows from clean quartersawn osage. It works fine.

I prefer clean quartersawn for composite bows but osage pins can be problemmatic.

If it's clean, you are in good shape. If you are shooting for 50# and under, you might consider 1-1/4" wide instead.

bigcountry · February 25, 2010, 12:43:00 PM

Thanks John. I am looking for 60lbs. Think I should barrel taper the hickory? Or keep it the 3/16" it is now all the way?

Man, it going to look weird on the belly being quarter sawn with no grain feathering. Hopefully cool.

There is not pin knots I can see. No knots period. Beatutiful board.

Pat B · February 25, 2010, 02:49:00 PM

Hickory backed osage makes an excellent bow. I've made quite a few and all with good results. All were sawed lumber also. I usually cut hickory backing strips at 3/16" and by the time you dress up both surfaces you will come out with 1/8" or slightly less. No need to taper the backing strip but you can. While tillering you may want to reduce the backing thickness some and it is easy to do.
Your dimensions look good but you can reduce them if you want. Go out with the full width for 6' or 8" is plenty. Leave the tips at 1/2" but reduce them later to 3/8" or less. Leave them a little thick to compensate for making them narrow. This will reduce the physical weight of the tips and reduce possible hand shock and increase performance.

bigcountry · February 25, 2010, 03:02:00 PM

As always thanks Pat. For some reason I am rather excited about this build. I have done the bamboo thing, and kinda excited to see how well hickory holds up.

Pat B · February 25, 2010, 05:05:00 PM

Hickory makes a very strong backing and is way easier than boo to work with.
Pre tiller your belly wood to about floor tiller stage; 4" of tip movement. Be sure the limbs are bending evenly and together. When you set up the Perry reflex this will insure a glue up with limbs that are bending evenly and together.

bigcountry · February 25, 2010, 05:51:00 PM

Yep, on my last IPE/Boo, I didn't floor tiller much. So I put in 3" of tip reflex. When I finished the glue up I lost it all. But after I removed some material, I got back 1.5". Which told me I didn't floor tiller enough.

yewsage · April 11, 2010, 12:40:00 PM

i've made several hbo bows, and the only one that gave me any trouble had quater-sawn hickory on the back. All the other backing strips were flat sawn, had ridiculous grain violations all over the place, and never heard a peep. This edge-grained one, straight lines tip to tips, lifted out at the handle and needed to be repaired. But...that could've been bad tillering, and it was a very short bow.

IdahoCurt · April 11, 2010, 09:51:00 PM

I use 1/4 sawn osage and back it with flat sawn hickory and I like to pre taper the core and backing.As said above,makes tillering predictable,easy and less work(more work before glue up)
I use a micrometer and write every thing down so poundage's are close for future bows.

bigcountry · April 15, 2010, 06:20:00 PM

I always thought quarter sawn trumped plain sawn (especially with ring violations. Well, might as well try it out and see what happens.

razorback · April 15, 2010, 08:16:00 PM

I have a quarter sawn osage stave that I am backing with boo. Hopefully we will both end up with shooter bows. Just watched dean torges video which was very helpful and am about to start reading his book. Keep us posted and I'll let you know how mine turns out, too.

frank bullitt · April 16, 2010, 11:05:00 AM

Big, can't wait to see the pics of this bow! I love the look of osage and hickory! Also if you put some walnut in the handle or tips, really sets it off!

I remember Ron Hardcastle back in the early '90s was advertising quarter sawn osage for bows. I also have an article of the Wilhelm boys, one of them had a osage backed w/hickory recurve, 80lbs! Made by Fred Bear.

bigcountry · April 16, 2010, 01:27:00 PM

QuoteOriginally posted by frank bullitt:
Big, can't wait to see the pics of this bow! I love the look of osage and hickory! Also if you put some walnut in the handle or tips, really sets it off!

I remember Ron Hardcastle back in the early '90s was advertising quarter sawn osage for bows. I also have an article of the Wilhelm boys, one of them had a osage backed w/hickory recurve, 80lbs! Made by Fred Bear.

I am itching so bad to start it. But made a promise that I would finish up a few I have laying around. I have a heavy poundage osage selfbow to brace. Hoped to tiller in the next few weeks. And have a take down yew in the works (one part from a broken yew bow I did a while ago)

Thanks for the encouragement.