first osage selfbow

[deadpool]

this is my first time working with osage so bare with me lol, I recieved the bow blank from MIKE MCGUIRE this after noon, I was soooo excited, the grain was perfect as he described, the one thing that did scare the crap out of me was the bottom snakey limb,

 


I didnt waste any time fulling around, so I started planing away,

 


I had so much fun watchin those golden curls peel of the wood with easy,unlike red oak or maple lol,
I wanted to taper the limbs to the point where the tips were 6/10" of an inch wide

peeled some of that belly of to,

 


had to smooth out some uneven cuts made by the plane,

 


floor tillering the limbs, I liked the stiffness at that point

 


I think its safe to say string the bow was the scariest part, let alone drawing it, I was soooooo scared a limb would snap on me, I noticed the limbs developed hinges =[,  so thats gone leave a pretty bad set after a while, I will try to fix that later,

 

and heres where I finished for today, man you gotta love that golden wood!!


 

thanks for baring with me!

[deadpool]

oh yea, the bow was finished at 66"

I still havent drawn all the way but the bow feels to be around 50 @24", I will find out tomorow what it is at my 27" draw

[BLACK WOLF]

Awesome. Bowmaking can be addicting. I love it. Every bow can be a learning experience and I love osage.

It's always best to take your time...especially during the tillering process.

I would also suggest taking some wood off near the handle and mid limb if you hadn't already done that.

I would love to see some updated pics.

Ray  

[Pat B]

Don't pull it any farther, You need to remove more wood from the inner 2/3 of each limb. You are about to hinge the outer 1/3 of each limb now. The upper limb is stiffer and a longer stiff area than the bottom. Your shaping work, handle area and overall appearance is very good but you need for the limbs to bend more evenly to distribute the stress of bending.       Pat

[canid song]

to go further than that, i would suggest thinning the inner 2/3 of the limbs out considerably. the tips are working way too hard.

it looks like turning out nice. best of luck.

[canid song]

wow, sorry about that. slow in the posting pat.

[deadpool]

your guys are exactly right, I worked on the limbs this morning, did the best I could again, and heres the bow at full brace,till not finished with the tillering, as you could see the top limb is still a little bit stiffer

 

I had another problem that i was ignoring, and that was the limbs twisting in the same direction, I need a heat gun to fix that, jus look at how off center the string is!!!


 

[canid song]

it looks to me like your bow was not laid out straight on the stave to begin with. if you took a plumb line from nock to nock with your bow unstrung, how well would the string line up with the center of the handle?

[mike mcguire]

keep working just go slow, I will send you a couple more blanks tomorrow at no charge , the first one always the hardest,I will lay the bow out on one and floor tiller it so ther will be less chance of a hinge, the main thing is to learn something on each bow, nobody gets it right the first time, you are already miles ahead of my first bow,after a few thousand they will all come out smooth, good luck and keep posting pics,  thanks mike

[Pat B]

Check the thickness from one side of each limb to the other. One side could be thicker than the other. I have a tendency to do the same when using the vice on my bench rather that the shaving horse.
   Looking at the newest braced pic you could still remove wood from the fades out 12" or so.    Pat

[deadpool]

okay i did the most i could, aaaaand i think its safe to safe im done? lol jus playing, the daylights gone so im gonna have to finish tomorow,

here the braced pic and the somewhat full draw pic, what do you think?

 


sorry bout the blurry pic

ir really narrowed the limbs near the handle down, i like it! kinda reminds me of a hill bow lol,

the draw weight is pretty light, between 40-45lbs, lighter than my liking, but hey, first ones neevr perfect! lol

 

[deadpool]

shot it 3 times btw, its a smooth draw, snappy bow, too bad bout the twists lol thats a real WRIST SLAPPER!!

[Eric Krewson]

You sure need one of these to check your tiller, click on the link.

 http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=033419

[MI_Bowhunter]

Good job.        

[deadpool]

hey eric thats an awsome inventon, but i ned to buy a drill to be able to try it, but man thats genius

[deadpool]

just got too tempted to shoot it again, and decided to make lil vid too, wont fool around with it anymore until those twists are fixed

 http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=44976563

[Pat B]

Where your limbs are bending the bend looks good but it is only a small portion of each limb. Try to make the bend extend out from the fades to just short of the tips. That way the stresses are spread out along the entire limb.     Pat

[BLACK WOLF]

Dude...ya gotta shooter! That's awesome for your first bow. The more bows you make the more you will understand what ideal tiller should look like and how to achieve it.

If you're happy with the draw weight...you can just leave the bow alone and focus on making your next bow use more of the entire limb rather than near the tips.

Good job!

Ray  

[Roy Steele]

The limb twist like'ly came when your bow limbs hindged.When or if you tiller the limbs more take a little more off the high side.