Ok, so I built my first Osage bow. I shot it about 100 times. And I am having trouble finding an arrow that doesn't contact the handle. If I hold the bow one way, the string is way too close to my arm and I get string burn easy, and turned upside down, it so far past off center, I get alot of contact. So I have two options. One, heat the limb and twist or heat at the handle and twist, or reshape the handle so when I hold it either way its equal and no string burn.
I am looking for advise, humbly, I have never heated a osage bow, and little leary of it.
Take a look. This is looking down braced. Basically it takes and "S" shape, but if I reshape the handle, all nocks line up with the handle.
(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/bigcountry_ky/OsageBuildalong/Osagebowtwist2.jpg?)
Here's another of the belly view. You can see if I twist the limb I am holding, to the right, it will be fairly straight bow.
(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/bigcountry_ky/OsageBuildalong/Osagebowtwist4.jpg?t=1211598952)
Here's a back view. Again if I twist this top limb, it should be in line with the bottom one. (http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/bigcountry_ky/OsageBuildalong/Osagebowtwist3.jpg?t=1211599119)
Ok, last one. This is unbraced.
(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/bigcountry_ky/OsageBuildalong/Osagebowtwist1.jpg?t=1211599216)
You can see the handle is pretty well inline with the bottom limb.
(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/bigcountry_ky/OsageBuildalong/Osagebellyview.jpg?t=1211599987)
If I hold the bow one way, the string hits my arm.
(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/bigcountry_ky/OsageBuildalong/OsageUpsidedown2.jpg?t=1211600225)
If I turn it the other way, string is too far over and I get arrow contact.
(http://i301.photobucket.com/albums/nn73/bigcountry_ky/OsageBuildalong/OsageHoldingrightway.jpg?t=1211600339)
Well the first selfbow i ever made i smiled the whole time,even after the great tiller explosion. But on the second bow i smiled even bigger.Fact is, now looking back at those bows I see a lot of flaws or things I've since learned to do differently,so maybe dont rush that piece and use your new skills on a different stave.Somebody smart said "The only way to learn is to make shaveings" and hey if you can have fun while doing that life is pretty good!
The guy who taught the class on making this said that also. Not sure if he was trying to tell me the bow didn't turn out well or what. So Matt, you don't think I should try to heat it and take out the twist?
You can try or keep it like it is. Which would you rather do? Which way gains more in your mind. I think I'd go down swinging as in trying, because it isn't working for you now is it? If you try and it blows (2 things) 1. You gained experience. 2. You lost the bow that wasn't performing. If you try and it works better: You gained experience, you gained a bow of which to really be proud, and you lost nothing! Hope this helps. I would go for it. and I think you can do it. It may take a combination of steaming the handle and the limbs. Good luck!
Looks like you got some prop twist, but the slight curve in the upper limb makes it more pronounced. I would dry heat the upper limb and try to take out some of the twist. Restring it to see how that did. If it is still not good take out some of the curve on the limb in the next heating attempt.
If you use steam let it set a couple days afterwards and before stringing or shooting it to let some moistier dry up in the wood.
Take your time with it and I see that bow as shoootable.
Piece of cake to correct if you have a heatgun.
I use my vise and a bending post to correct sideways bends. I adjust my vise to hold the stave against the post, heat the area that needs correcting hot enough that I can't hold my hand on it for more than a few seconds and add shims to bend the wood to the side. The limb opposite the area to be bent gives me a lot of leverage to make the correction.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bendingpost.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bendingpost2.jpg)
The post also supports my stave when I am doing some serious rasping and well as being a good support for a limb I am removing propeler twist from.
Alright Eric! He might teach us both something here!
I wouldn't heat it. I would flip it around and shoot a lighter spined arrow if needed. Jawge
That is what I like about the selfbow building, more than one way to skin a cat. Good point George!
Osage is really easy to bend and a string down the middle of the handle is the mark of a well made bow.
It took me 4 days to turn the billets in the picture from a doglegged, severely propelered pair to what you see in the vise. Easy to do, just go slow and make multiple corrections instead of trying to do it all at one time.
I don't like to heat tillered limbs. My best success has been heating the parts of the bow that do not bend (tips/handle), or heating the limbs before tillering.
In this case, I'd either flip it as George suggested, or I'd heat the handle and bend it inline.
For bending the handle, I used a block of wood cut like this: ]
Place the bow in the ] form, and use a 8" c-clamp and crank it until the the handle is bent where you need it..
bending wood with heat. (http://analogperiphery.blogspot.com/2007/04/bending-wood-with-heat.html)
Made lots of osage bows, heated almost all until I was satisfied with them. 100 arrows out of an osage bow is still way below a finished, broke in bow, now is the time to correct it.
While we are on the subject of heat correcting and my handy little work bench post. Here is how I use it for removing propeller. This step is best done while the stave is full width as the pipe wrench will eat up the stave a bit no matter how much you pad it.
I heat the propellered area and add weight to the bucket. I often put 2 25# bags of lead shot in the bucket as well as as many heavy C clamps as it takes to untwist the limb.
You can see my heat gun holster in this picture. I made it out of a piece of aluminum angle. Sure is handy when you have a red hot heat gun and need to set it down while you are adjusting a hot limb. Before I made the holster I melted several power cords and burned my fingers on a regular basis by having a hot gun laying loose on my workbench.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/propellerpost.jpg)
Here is a close up of the heat gun holster.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/heatgunholder.jpg)
Eric, very nice. Jawge
OOPS! made one error in my "staged" picture. Always correct proppeller with the staves belly up. This way if the limb droops you will gain a little reflex. With the back facing up you will add unwanted deflex during your correction.
I forgot to mention this. With character staves, handy thing is to leave the nocks a good inch wide or so and leave the handle full width. You can shape the handle to track the string better that way. You can also cut the nocks on the offending side deeper so in that picture you can cut the nocks on your bow hand side deeper on bring the string over a bit. Heating is always a last resort for me. Jawge
I have several selfbows that have the same issue you have Big Country and they shoot really well
One of my bows has the string as far off centre as yours and I found it more forgiving of arrow spine due to being so far outside of centre . I do get my arm slapped due to my bows liking a lower brace but with a medium weight leather armguard I do not feel it and get real good life out of my serving .
With the other way around you simply need lighter spined arrows and it will be fine if the tiller on the bow allows or it may need a minor touch up .
Your grip is another thing that is completly differant with selfbows I have found and it may be a factor in string slap
regards Jacko
Thanks guys, I think I am going to try to heat it, and try to correct. For nothing more than gettin the experience of doing it. Just not sure if I want to heat the tip or try to steam the handle. I know I might mess it up. But I plan on doing this alot.
Eric as always, thanks for taking the time to post detailed pictures
I don't use steam anymore. You can heat the handle easily as well with a heat gun.
I would bend the tip over first. You only need to heat about a 4" section right where the dogleg is. After you get the limb moving to the side and get it clamped or wedged in place go back and heat the area back up. Let cool for about 1/2 hour and check your progress, repeat if necessary . Keep your heat gun moving all the time, back to belly and side to side or you will scorch the wood.
I always leave a penciled center line on my bows to give me a reference for straightening. It is the last thing I take off before I apply a finish.
Eric, It looked like your billets were spilced in the handle. Is heat safe with Urac? can BBOs be treated with heat after the glue up without delamination?
Hey Eric, I was told to saturate with mineral oil. Any reason why? They said it kept it from scorching the wood.
I will post progress.
I have heated a urac splice a bunch of times with out problems. I have also moved the tips on a urac glued BBO with heat.
Any oil will prevent scorching and distribute the heat evenly. I don't use any oil myself, use caution with my heat gun instead.
I use a reflector made from a piece of aluminum angle on my initial heating. It speeds the heating time and heats the whole area for correcting at one time.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/staveheating.jpg)
great idea, eric.