The cherry is strong but light enough for a good center lam and an osage belly works very well. I have 2 bows that I built last year; one a boo backed yew and the other a boo backed hickory. The boo/hick started taking on too much set and the boo/yew developed a bad fret so I ground down the bellies to about 1/8" and added an osage belly and retillered. Both bows came out better than the original...except "Trouble Maker" the boo/hick. First the spliced osage gave below the handle. I fixed that by re gluing...I thought! Then when the handle popped off I added 3 thin handle lams so they would give a bit and wrapped the handle in hemp cord and set that in Massey finish. Then the bottom of the riser lams began to lift so I added a rawhide wrap and when that didn't quite do the trick I added another wrap of silk thread set in super glue...hence the name Trouble Maker. She is an excellent little bow, 61"t/t, about 1" wide at the fades and a straight taper to 3/8" tips. She pulls 55#@26" and spits an arrow. After 2 years of shooting she still holds 1" of reflex after resting...and the handle is still sound.
By the way, both of these bows were glued with TBIII glue. The handle popping off was my fault for getting the limbs to bend right up to the bulbous handle. Pat
Topic: This is all Krewsons fault... (Read 1516 times)
