Got some wood, Now time to do something with it

[WyomingWhitetail]

Well last trip back home from college i brought back a few pieces of wood to try and build a couple of selfbows. I have two pieces of osage, one that is already mostly worked down to a ring and its about half a log so i might try to split it again. Then i have a smaller osage piece that still has the bark on it, and then a debarked piece of what i think is hickory. Hopefully i can get a few bows of of them. Im thinking probably flatbows based off of designs in the traditional bowyers bible books.  

   
       
   

[WyomingWhitetail]

[KellyG]

Well have fun. It looks like you have a good start.

If you can either saw or use a hachet and a hammer and score the back where you want it to split. Then walk the split where you want it.

If not Osage will go where it wants. Did one log with out doing that and it split out on me. But the others that I was able to score walked down nicely.

Hope that is not to confusing.

[WyomingWhitetail]

yea ive heard of scoring the back in order to ensure a straight split. Probably will have to try it. Not sure which one i will try first, might try to make one out of the hickory first and then graduate to osage.

[fujimo]

just watch- if your wood is a little snakey- and you do a sraight split- you might have too much runout on the sides- if it is a relatively straight grained stave- it should be ok.
otherwise do a straight split, and if you are concerned about the runout, then back it with rawhide, linen or silk- to save the back- rawhide looks awesome and is nice and traditional- but linen and silk are real easy to work with
wayne