Osage, Boo, Bacote riser and tip overlays. 64 tip to tip, 56 # at 29" draw. 8 inch Osage kerf down the limb tips. Real looker and shoots great.

 

Looks good to me. Beautiful work.
   Pappy

Roy, more pics please! I am going to do one of these BBO's for my next bow and I want to see more pics so I can steal your ideas!  :eek:  

What was your form dimensions and did you use clamps, straps or pressure hose?

I use clamps, 4 inch center post in the center of the handle, mid limb posts are 2 3/4 high, spaced on this one 14 on top limb and 13 5/8th on bottom limb, both measured from the center of the handle. I cut a 1/16th thick kerf 8 inches down the limb tips and insert a 1/16th thick Osage lam I made. I use 6 inch end posts, the kerf of Osage gives the bow a nice gentle recurve and looks sharp.    

   

 

Bacote tip overlays here.

   

 

   

   

 

One note of caution, be careful when spreading the kerf apart at glue up or it will split on ya. I place a small clamp at the end of the kerf towards the riser section to support it while I spread the glue into it and also put the clamp back on "first" when you go to clamp the bow up. If you forget to do that like I did once, the limb could split at the end of the kerf.

 

 

I like the kerf idea and it looks great. But, I only have one osage slat and I chancing the split limb in my attempt.  

Thanks for the great pics and my wife loves your home!

You did great with this bow! Excellent combo, cut, & finish.

Beautiful bow! I hope mine turns out that nice!I'm waiting on my urac to get here so I can build a BBO too.

How thick was your osage at center? I see your gluing up w/o the handle. What are the pros and cons of this? Less to worry about I would think.

How long is your handle? I'm doing a Bocote/Padauk/Bacote/Padauk/Kingswood handle. The bocote on the belly is 14" long to stiffen the handle section. I was also going to put another thin piece 14" under the boo also.

I was going to add a 1/8" lam of hickory in  between the boo and the osage too. My osage is 3/8 thick.. do you guys think that will be too much? Everything is 68" long now and I'd like to end up around 55-60 lbs. Should I leave the hickory lam out?

Nicely done.

The slat was 1/2 thick,tapered to 3/8 thick at the tips. I glue the 13 inch riser section on after the osage and boo come out of the clamps. I did a 1/8th thick kerf once, it was ok but gave me too much recurve which I did not want, that is why I went to 1/16th thick kerf. You could use a 1/8th kerf, then use shorter end blocks than the 6 inch posts I used. It is all a matter of trial and error to see what you like:) But you need to leave room on the belly side to rasp your facets in, without rasping into the kerf lam glue joint. So that is the main reason I went to a thinner 1/16th kerf lam.

   

I don't understand how the kerf changed the dynamics of the recurve.  Seems that you just replaced the missing wood from the cut.  Does the extra two glue lines add that much stiffness?  Great looking bow by the way!  I'm working on one now that turned into another kids bow.  About to start my first bamboo backed ipe.

If you take a 3/8th thick piece of wood and cut a 1/8th kerf in it, the wood will bend/flex easier than if it had a thinner 1/16th kerf cut in it. But the main reason I went to the 1/16th kerf was to leave me a tad more room for rasping in my belly facets.

Thanks for the info, I don't have a lot of experience with BBO's but I'd say that's top shelf! Very nice looking bow.

My goal is to just make it shoot but if I can come in at 50-60 lbs I'll be thrilled. My osage is 3/8"'s so I may have to trim the tips down to make weight.

I've never used uraq but my two bows with titebond III had handle popping issues. Mostly due to not extending the fades enough.