Osage Static Recurve Build-Along - FINISHED PICS!

[4est trekker]

Hey, all.  Here's a little follow-along on my latest project, an osage static recurve.  My target is 50# @28". (Actually, 50# and some change at 28" and some change, but who's counting?) Here's the stave I chose.  I cut it a couple of years ago from a nice little honey-hole in southwest Iowa.

   

   

I decided on nearly straight taper for the sides, and a very slight, even taper for the belly.  I measure this out by dividing each limb into equal parts, marking the width/thickness at each point, and then connecting the dots.  Sorry, I didn't take any pictures of that process.

I like to tiller the bow out to about 24" before I heat any reflex into it or recurve the tips.  Here a couple pictures of the bow at brace and drawn to 22" on the tree:

   

   


At this point I heated in about 2" of reflex and straightened the stave out a bit.  Again, sorry...no pictures of that part either.

Next I recurved the tips. I tapered the last 7" of each tip, then glued up a series of laminations to complete the curve.  Here's a picture of the jigs I used for that process, complete with some prebent maple backing strips.  The jigs are identical, as they were held together with double sided tape while shaping.  With two forms, I can prebend the laminations 4 at a time (2 on each jig) using dry heat.  I also prebend the tips of the bow.  

   


End of round 1...    

[4est trekker]

After the long process of preparing the rosewood/osage lams and the limb tips, here's the result.  Kind of wacky, but it'll get dressed up in the end with some nice laminated brush knocks a la Nels Grumley.  I used Urac 185 for all the laminations.

   

   

   


After a little tweaking of both the alignment (using dry heat, but avoiding the laminations!) and the tiller, here's where I'm at.  The bottom (i.e stronger) limb is on the right.  It's pulling about 45#@24", so I'm in the ballpark to hit my target weight/draw.  It's currently 63" ntn.  Now comes the agonizing last four inches!      :(     If all goes according to plan, I'll dress the bow out with brush nocks and a nice set of rattler skins.  

   

   


Here's a shot of the bow at rest just after shooting about 50 arrows through it a short draw.

   


End of round 2...more to come!

[red hill]

Thanks for the thread, 4est. I'm interested in flipping the tips on a future bow. Your cauls are nice.
   
Stan

[DEATHMASTER]

You make a very nice bow.
Like the tips you did on thar one.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

AHHH! My nemesis, The flipped tip!

 Glad your posting this 4est I have successfully failed on a static tip 3 times now. Maybe this flip along will help me out.

 Stiks

[red hill]

Flip-along! I like that...    
I've heated reflex into an osage selfbow but haven't flipped tips yet.
Stan

[TroutGuide]

I'll take 4 of those staves like the one in the first pictures.  I figure there worth at least $25 each and what ever shipping is.  Let me know.  

[Osagetree]

I have forgotten what straight, clean osage is like    

That is a very nice profile!

[J. Holden]

Unbelievable!  You make it look too easy...  Beautiful bow.

-Jeremy  

[Don Drake]

Nice job, I am still trying just to get a straight profile with no set or string follow.  

[4est trekker]

I've got the bow tillered back out to 27" and have been shooting it quite a bit.  It's pulling right at 50# and flat-launches an arrow.  I got the handle roughed in as shown below.  I would have liked to have done a more Hill-like grip with a slight dish, but the stave simply didn't allow due to a suspect area I wanted to avoid when laying out the fades.  That area turned out to be nothing, but I avoided it nonethless.  As such, my handle area is shorter than usual.  However, it turned out to be a good thing because it gave me a touch more working limb.

 

 

 


After about two hours of tedious work, I got both limb tips laminated with alternations of osage and rosewood in preparation for the brush nocks.  This process is slightly more enjoyable than watching paint dry.        However, it'll be worth it in the end.  For those that may be wondering, "Doesn't that extra mass at the tips create handshock and slow the arrow down?" Theoretically, perhaps.  But I've never noticed a difference.  I love the way they shoot, look, and function (i.e. keeping brush from snagging between the limb and the string).  If it's good enough for Nels Grumley and his cohorts, it's good enough for me.

 


End of round 3...

[SportHunter]

Looking great so far, really like the grum style nocks. Would like to see more of the process with the laminated recurve part, maybe on your next build.

[bjansen]

Outsanding as always 4est.  Looks amazing!

[4est trekker]

Well, I'm up to roughly 35 hours on this bow now and it's coming along nicely. It's tillered and fairly shot in to 28", holding its profile nicely, and is sporting some new nocks.  

Because I'm a weakling, I generally have my cousin shoot in a bow while I observe from the side. He's always quite eager to help!  Anyway, here's a full draw shot at 28".  It's  a little awkward, as he was shooting from his knees in his basement because of the 115 degree heat index outside!  BLAH!

 


Here's what the profile looked like immediately after shooting and unstringing:

 

Here's a few shots of the brush nocks, which are set up with double nocks for stringing.  I've got some tweaking to do on them yet, but they're getting there:

 

 

 

 

End of round 4...getting closer!

[Osagetree]

Spectacular!!!!!  

[Igor]

Wow!

Great looking stick!

Thanks for sharing your gift!


><>

Chief

[snag]

Great craftsmanship. Just wondering is there any benefit to this type of tip performance-wise? Seems like if there was bowyers would using them today. But then maybe with selfbows there is...?

[Raven22]

looking great

[4est trekker]

Thanks for the kind comments everyone.  

Snag: These nocks are a classic of days-gone-by (which means that we've "evolved" and "engineered" our way past them         ) They're designed to keep brush from snagging between the string and the limb on recurves, and they do a marvelous job at that! Nels Grumley and others pioneered them in the 30's and 40's, but they've since fallen out of fashion.     Oh, the good old days!        

In these days of ultralight/ultrafast/ultraskinny/ultrashort bows, these nocks seem a contraction.  They do add mass at the tips, which slows the arrow slightly (a measly 2-3 fps).  However, speed demons generally opt for glassed, laminated, and/or composite bows.  But don't be fooled...this little bow is a launcher.  The tips are static for about the last 8" and are fairly norrow; at the same time, the bow is only 63" ntn and has a good amount of set back at the handle.  These factors all increase performance.  Hope that helps  

[fish n chicks]

Great thread 4est. The way you pass on your knowledge certainly is in the spirit of archery itself. Thanks for the great pics and info.