I am waiting for some arrows to be finished before I make my final judgement, but thus far I wish I had just spent the money on an osage stave. the proportions in the handle is my biggest issue. not wanting to hog away a bunch of material to reduce the diameter, the position of the rest is in a thicker spot than I would like. I was told that 2" above center in the handle is the best location for the rest, by doing that I now need to reduce the diameter of the handle.
I normally do not follow the rules, but this time I did and I wish I didn't.
I have horizontal stress lines in both limbs and a piece of the bamboo backing was borken off(not on an edge but in the middle of the limb).
I know the first thought to come up is that I stressed the limbs too much too quick, but I have built a few osage selfbows from staves and can say with all confidence that I excersised the limbs at least 25 times before fixing the long string on the tree to check tiller with the walkie talkie.
at this point I do not hear any cracking or any noise in the limbs and I sinewed the bamboo spot.only time will tell.
kirk