Bendy handle

[ranger 3]

Has anyone posted a build-a-long on a bendy handle Osage bow, I'm thinking about trying one?

[George Tsoukalas]

Well, the now I am shooting now is of osage and bends in the handle and fades. These bows seem to store a nice amount of energy. Part of the buildalong is on my site. I did end up having to turn the bow around but that was because of a tuning issue not related to bending in the handle. Jawge

[George Tsoukalas]

Oops.
 http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/crookedbow.html

[SEMO_HUNTER]

I've only built one and in my experience they are very forgiving. Pearl's hackberry bow he built not long ago is a bendy handle I believe.

I also found that it was really simple to do and took way less time to complete, those style bows represent the ultimate in simplicity of primitive archery no doubt.

Wish I could direct you to a build along Ranger, maybe on PA if you can't find one here?

[Dan Landis]

Ranger, No build a longs that I'm aware of, but a word of advice from a lesson I learned the hard way.  Keep the handle area fairly stiff until the final stages of tillering.  The last bendy handle one I made from hackberry developed a hinge in the handle and eventually a few frets because I removed wood from that area before getting the limbs bending enough.  Osage probably would not have developed the frets as easily though...Dan

[PEARL DRUMS]

I have built 3 of them. They really are quite simple. Do as Dan said and leave the handle area stiffer until the end of tillering so you dont get a "V" shaped drawn bow.

[Tom Leemans]

Shaun Webb had a real beauty with an arc of a circle tiller at MOJam that some lucky kid got.

Shaun????  

[Shaun]

This young man had to have an ELB with circle tiller. I thought the 55 @ 28 would be too much for his teenage build - but I was wrong.

It took me a few tries to start getting the hang of circle tiller. Main trick it to make the bow an even taper from handle to tips - slightly rounder at the handle and ends and a little flatter in the middle of the limb - about 8/5 width/thickness ratio at mid limb. Try to have an even amount of total wood taper even though the shape changes slightly.

Love the way these look and feel with a heavy arrow. Very forgiving and smooth.

PS. The string will wander out of the handle alignment as you tiller and can be brought back by taking wood off the strong side. This is much more pronounced than in flat bow design.