Osage first try (ding ding)

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Well at the very least you will have to stop by for a visit when your traveling through Missouri. I don't even know what home state you hail from?
You mentioned some hunting out in Kansas at one time, but I don't know if that's where you call home or not? It would be kinda cool to have you stop by and help me whittle on some Osage for a while and talk shop anyway.

I've got my crooked old stave straightened up a bit and surprizingly I got it dang close to center. I put a string from tip to tip and it's within 1/8" of being dead center. That's good enough for tillering and I won't mess with it any further until I'm done tillering. It's been my experience that the wood will move or twist some while tillering anyway so it may be lined up perfect once I get to that point and I won't have to do anything else to it? I'll see.

I've got some pics to share and I'll get those up today for you to look at. I forgot to take pics of the bow blank before I steamed it, but I do have some of what it looked like before I started shaping it, then the after steaming. It's got some waves and dips, but the tips line up better than I thought it would. This was just a whim anyway and I wanted to challenge myself to see what I could make out of it. It's going to be a bend in the handle bow, light poundage maybe #40 or so and should make a decent rabbit or stump thumper.

[hova]

couple ideas for ya kel . you might try waiting until it gets warm there (i know , lol) , throw some of that black pain on a spot of sand , and stick your bow under the paint in the sand. this  might actually get too hot though.

another option is to use exhaust either from a gas humvee if you got em , or something that has hot exhaust. most exhaust even on regular cars is around 200* coming from the pipe. a cat engine (loader or tank) runs a little hotter . you shouldnt need to hold it there very long.


i was thinking too , you could use a torch , and just hold it well below the stave. maybe even wrap the stave in some foil to avoid scorching. i have used torches for heat like this in soldering things , and as long as you stay 8" or more from the flame , you should be good.


dont burn all that work up though...


-hov

[KellyG]

Sound go like you have a plan for it. I am from VA but live in KS now by way of WV,TX,AK,KS,AZ Back to Kansas throw in 2 trips to korea and now 3 to here and that is my last 20yrs lol. That is just he places I hung my hat, Heck I have driven thur most states and parts of Canada, Visited Mexico, Thialand and the Bahamas (the only one that was not due to military).
I am only about 2 hours from KC and 6 from St louie.
Oh about an hour or soo and I will cut on my stave some.

[John Scifres]

Can I ship you a heat gun?

You can steam dry wood.  It's best if it is sealed with shellac though.

[KellyG]

Thanks John if I really just cant come up with some other option I will get back to ya. It can take weeks to get things here. That is a kind offer.
If I was around them Abrams the problem would be easy their exhaust can melt paint off a car.
Hova I have thought of the exhaust too.
I think a little space heater would do the trick. I know we have one of them. If I oiled up the limbe and put it in front of the heater that might work.
thanks for the advise and offers.
God Bless,
Kelly

[KellyG]

Ok tonight it is looking like a bow. Not bending like one yet but look like one; a little.
Ok fist I strapped it down and tried something new. I put two stick a cross my box and the stave on that as strapped it down. ( may put a 2x4 or a 4x4 over the sticks and if and when I try to take out some of the twist and bends).
 
Measure the thickness make sure you are measuring from the back. I made that gage out of a paper towel role.
 
Make sure you also mark you gages, you would not want to use the wrong end. Don't ask me how I know, just go head and mark your gages.
 
I used the draw knife to bring it down to my line. Checked floor tiller and there is some flex not much at all but some. A very little more in the knotty limb. Here is PICs of the side Profle
on the floor (it bows to much to put on the tree this way.
 
on the tree. well future. I need to run the tape across the other side, then go down a bout 25" or so from the top of the first piece. the tape is 1" wide so it will be fairly easy to put up and take down later.
 
Ok pulled this sucker out where the handle and fade meets.
 
The limbs are at 3/4" I will take them down to 5/8"  tomorrow. My new room the walls are just too thin so I do not want to keep the neighbors up.
Oh if I were to make the Knotty limb the bottom I would have to add on a shelf off the side of the bow just to make it a center shot. I will try and get some string on it tomorrow . This will be just to give me and Ideal of how far off center it really is.
Well as all was let me know,
Kelly

[DVSHUNTER]

just a thought here, Semo, you shipped him that stave, so I'm assuming it was cut recently? I don't know for sure, but if it is one you just cut then I'm sure it is still a bit green. If that's the case, use steam and don't bend it yet. Green wood takes lots of set. I bet there in the desert it would dry in a few weeks at the stage he has it. Just sayin.
kelly, it looks more like a bow everytime I see it. That twist is gonna need some work. Try to round up a pipewrench to untwist it.

[Pat B]

Kelly, get her to 5/8" and see how the floor tiller is. If it will bend with 4" of tip movement see where most of the bend is(on each limb). If each seems pretty even, cut temporary string grooves and short string her. This is where the real tillering begin and you can truely see how the limbs are bending. Exercise the limbs first, on the tree, and don't pull too far yet.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

DVS- I'm pretty sure that one was cut the first week of October. It should still have a little bit of green in it yet, but not much. Especially since Kelly has it worked down pretty good, it seems like they dry faster the more wood you take off. He also needs to get some sealer on it as soon as he's done working it down to a bow, just in case. Or at the very least keep putting tung oil on it, if he has some.

Other opinions here would also help, I'm just going off my limited knowledge that I've gained in the past 6 months, so I don't know everything by any stretch of the imagination. LOL

[Art B]

Yeah, you need to get some type sealer on it's back. Masking, packing or strapping tape will work if you don't have sealer. Looking good!......Art

[ber643]

That's a valuable tip as an alternate, Art, that I hadn't happened to have heard before (or don't remember - LOL). Especially for a guy working under heavy handicaps like Kelly is. I'll tell you, I'm proud on him, for sure, and all you guys for all the help and support you are giving him.            

[Art B]

Poor folk gots poor ways Bernie! Can't help but be inspired with what little he has to work with and how well things are coming along. Gotta hand to all the guys here too, great group! Art

[SEMO_HUNTER]

That is a neat tip Art, I hadn't heard that one before either, but it makes sense to me. Anything that will act as a moisture barrier to keep it from escaping where you don't want it to should do the job.
I'm going to store that one away in memory!

[DVSHUNTER]

yep, same here. I'd say it is still green, but semo, you're right. With it down that far it will dry quick. Still, I'd give it a few weeks before bending/stressing the limbs much to avoid set.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Kelly, here's those pics of the ugly stave I told you about. I whipped it down pretty quick for me anyway. Yesterday it looked like this.

 

After working it down to the general shape last night and steaming out that sway so the tips would line up, this is what it looked like this morning.

 
 

Then after working on it today this is where I was at by about 5pm.

 

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Then more tillering, more rasping, more sanding, more cussing, and more cussing    ........this is where I was at around 9:30pm.
I decided to quit while I was ahead, and my back was starting to ache from leaning over my shaving horse. So before I got too tired and did something stupid, I decided I would leave it alone until tomorrow and get the short string on it.
I've got a bit of a hard spot there on the left side that has a dip in the limb I think I can get it out by working down the edges from the belly. I don't want to take anymore meat off the belly, I'm just going to round it from the bottom tapering up to the sides a little and see if it will conform.
This ain't too bad for me, 2 days from ugly stave to almost tillered.
You all must inspire me to do better?    

 

You can see that hard spot I'm talking about a little better in this pic.
 

This pic shows what I'm dealing with when I say hard spot. It actually dips right there and if I had a heat gun I could probably get that out, but it's not a big deal to me as long as my tiller looks pretty good when strung. This is just project bow anyway to see if I could turn the ugliest stave I had into something useful.
It will probably just be a stumper and a bunny thumper anyway.

 

There are lots of pin knots and junk throughout the stave, and I got rid of most of the major ones, but there's still plenty of small ones. That concerns me and I hope one of them doesn't decide to start a fret on me. Oh well, I accomplished what I set out to do and proved something to myself, so the mission has already been accomplished as far as I'm concerned.

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by DVSHUNTER:
yep, same here. I'd say it is still green, but semo, you're right. With it down that far it will dry quick. Still, I'd give it a few weeks before bending/stressing the limbs much to avoid set.

I know exactly what your saying........I have actually done that before with my very first bow that I made. I started on it while it was green as a gord and my limbs set from shooting it too much. I should have let it age longer, but once I started working on it.....I just couldn't stop!  

[George Tsoukalas]

Yes, let that stave dry out a  bit more. That stave sure is bending a lot in the handle. Perhaps you could work on getting more bending mid limb on. Jawge

[KellyG]

Well I did take of a about 1/8" more so the limb thickness is down to 5/8. I think the thicker end my be greener than the knotty end. The good news it is the monsoon season here. We have gotten more rain here this trip than my last two combined. I think that will help with the checking.
However, It is dry here. I cut some cane off that was green and by day two it was brown and dry. When the stave firs came I was adding super glue to the checks daily. That is not the case now. I think the rains have raised the humidity.
There is some movement in the limbs but very little. The knotty one maybe 1" and less for the twisted.
Semo that is pretty quick on that stave.
Thanks to all for you advise. Now that it has some flex to it I will be looking for a way to support the whole limb. A 2x4 I think strapped under the bow will do that.
Thanks again for the help,
Kelly

[George Tsoukalas]

Yes, let'er dry before you heat gun or dry heat it, Kelly. I used to use the kitchen stave. Jawge