Rawhide -Backed Osage Static

[Kirkll]

Thanks guys. Kirk, yes the rings were a definite factor in deciding to back it before tillering. I've chased rings on some gnarly stuff but this one had very thin, wonky rings that I didn't trust myself not to mess up. So, I got it the best I could then checked the bends at floor tiller, which was easy thanks to the straightness. Then glued on the wet rawhide and proceeded from there. Probably not the ideal way to do things, but so far so good.


Oh, and brace on the unfinished pic was probably around 5" or so.

Thanks for the feed back Damon. I’ve followed a few build along’s doing these and have seen different procedures used for backing.  some guys did it after they tillered the limbs…. That never made sense to me. Seems to me like you would be adjusting tiller again doing it that way….. but I learned a long time ago that common sense doesn’t always play into this bow building stuff.


I’ve got an old Osage stave I’ve been ignoring for years. I pulled it out yesterday and looked it over. I am contemplating whether I have the time to devote myself to the task of making a bow out of it…. If I do , I’ll start a thread and be asking a bunch of questions as I go so as not to screw it up too bad.

Kirk

[Kirkll]

Very nice bow, Damon. I like everything about it. 
 On the heat treating you can heat the belly until you get color, even dark color without hurting anything. Just be sure the heat doesn't wrap around the edges to the back.

Hey Pat,

 does heat treating the belly of the bow for color effect the tiller?    Kirk

[Mad Max]

Floor tiller is the key kirk
I will post it later today

[Pat B]

Kirk, it can affect tiller because it's hard to get the heat treating exactly the same all over so some readjustment is probably on an already tillered bow. If you do it at floor tiller stage like Mark said then it's no problem. Even then you can go back later and retreat but then you might have to readjust the tiller.

[Kirkll]

Ok.... with that being said about it effecting tiller. Is there any advantage to heat treating other than color?   Osage will naturally darken up with a bit of time?   Kirk

[wooddamon1]

Kirk, with osage bows, heat (dry or steam) is normally applied to straighten, induce reflex, correct propeller twist and/or string or tip alignment. It's very malleable with heat. Myself, I made the form/caul to induce reflex and correct minor alignment issues if needed. During tillering I will inevitably lose some or most of the induced reflex, so starting out with some helps prevent too much set/string follow in the finished bow. Still a noob at this, but that advice from more experienced builders was repeated often enough that I figured I'd follow it. Works out pretty well for me unless I get impatient during tillering.

[Pat B]

Heat treating the belly adds compression strength to the limb. With osage, heat treating isn't necessary because it is already strong in compression. I do it anyway because it doesn't hurt anything and it can help. Heat treating works better for whitewoods like hickory, elm, hackberry, maple, etc.
 In TBB4, Marc St Louis wrote a chapter on heat treating bow bellies. Marc has studied the affects of heat treating and has come up with the conclusion that it does indeed improve compression strength and performance. Marc builds high performance short selfbows. His method of heat treating is a lot more severe than the way I do it but I still get benefits from it.
 Heat treating and heat straightening are two different things with two different effects. Heat straightening, whether wet or dry is used to make corrections like straightening, bending and recurving. With heat straightening you don't want to scorch the wood. With heat treating you want to scorch the belly(only) to increase compression strength but you can also add reflex to the bow at the same times.

[onetone]

That looks like a finely crafted self bow! Nice work  what tool do you use to chase the rings on the back?

[wooddamon1]

Thanks, onetone! I use a drawknife mostly, when needed I have a deep-bellied hunting knife and various card scrapers.