Ozbow

Evening all, had to share this one!!

So late last year Neil was kind enough to drop by my place and talk bows while picking up some supplies and what not from further up the coast. Quite a hike for him and I very much appreciated the time so thanks for that mate. he was also kind enough to leave me with some osage billets to muck around with... pretty twisted and knotty but still worth keeping.

Finally got around to doing something with one of them. It was about half a tree so I split it to a quarter and then peeled the knotty surface back to one growth ring. I've never done this before but really enjoyed working with the Osage, its magical stuff!! Got one ring all the way along and then decided it was quite thick and may be able to split it in have and the chase another ring... split like a dream and ended up with 2 39" long staves, one knotty as buggery and one clean and perfect.

Both twisted through about 90 degrees end to end. Nothing a bit of oil and a fire cant fix!! heat bent them back as straight as I could get and roughed the clean backed stave out to bow shape. Rough guess at thickness taper and some peg style nocks and it was ready for a string...

String on and a few pulls shocked me!! Heavy little thing!
Few scrapes to adjust the tiller and in no time it was nice and even and pulling 48lb @ 12 inches!!

Max draw is about 16 inches and I haven't pushed it that far yet. Its uncomfortable to shoot because its so heavy but it was a blast to make!!

Cant wait to make something from my full length osage stave now.

Colin

Awesome work Col!

I love seein them shorties what's the overall length of the bow?, if it's only 39" ntn and 48#@16 it would be a killer on your fingers!. What's the brace height on her?

Morning Colin, good Post Mate and a top result. Look forward to seeing the full length Stave in action. Funny how I just finished watching a series of Videos on Primitive Traps and this was the last I watched before coming across to Ozbow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7BVdaYuxLs and then see your Post on a Short Bow. Not suggesting just commenting on the coincidence

regards Perry

Superb! The billet you had was a real nightmare, I'm amazed you managed to get a bow from it.

I had a crack at an Osage stave and managed to go through the ring, so I'm looking at backing with bamboo now. Just got to straighten out the limb...

Thanks Cam, over all length is as I said, 39" and its 48lb at 12 inches not 16... definitely rough on the fingers!!

That's an interesting coincidence Perry!

Neil, just go down to the next ring mate! I went down about 3 or 4 peeling the very outer surface of this billet back and at least through 2 on this bow after I split the stave off the inside of the other piece... as long as its once ring all the way along it should hold, but it doesn't matter which ring.

Colin