Spliced Osage Flatbow

[mikaluger]

A mate at the archery club surprised me with a piece of osage he had lying around at home. It was more like a fence paling that was cut in half!
It was 36" long about 4" wide and 1/2" thick. He said to me "Can you make a bow from this?" , "If you can you can have it". I took it home.

So after much deliberation, I thought, time to make a spliced flatbow. I ripped the billet in half lengthways, then marked a splice. I laid out the ripped billets so that when the bow is drawn, the fades and the tips are opposite each other as they where side by side before the billet was ripped. Hope this makes sense! This should keep the arcs fairly even for tillering. I hope!
I glued the splice join with techni glue and then the next day, cleaned it up and backed the whole length with 4mm of Hickory, the Riser will be a solid hickory block. The splice will be safely clamped between the riser and the backing. This is what I have done so far.

[Goatchaser]

lookin good mate,

[Stickbow Hunter]

Lookin' forward to the build Mik.

Jeff

[rodlonq]

Beauty Mik, looks like a challenging project. Cant wait to see your next post (or paling ).

Cheers..... Rod

[bigbob]

Beauty Mik, looks like a challenging project. Cant wait to see your next post (or paling ).

Cheers..... Rod

Looking great so far, be keen to see the finished bow.

[Gringa Bows]

Top job mate,love that Osage

[greybeard]

Looks like an interesting project.

So after much deliberation, I thought, time to make a spliced flatbow. I ripped the billet in half lengthways, then marked a splice. I laid out the ripped billets so that when the bow is drawn, the fades and the tips are opposite each other as they where side by side before the billet was ripped. Hope this makes sense! This should keep the arcs fairly even for tillering. I hope!

That is the method I use when splicing bush billets. If possible I try to work out which end of the billet was closest to the base of the tree and splice at that end.

It is amazing the strength attained with this style of splice, I have used it a few times with unbacked selfbows and have not had any problems.

Do you think you may have to reduce the thickness of the hickory backing as you work towards the tips?

Daryl.

[mikaluger]

Hi Daryl,
I was actually going to reduce the tips on the belly side! I never thought of the reducing it on the backing side, would this reduce string follow?

[greybeard]

I was thinking of the ratio of hickory to Osage orange.

If too much material is taken off the belly the hickory may overpower the Osage.

Daryl.

[Hamish]

Yep, Lookin good! I hope you are using techniglue or something similar to glue the riser on. A really good rigid glueline is necessary to stop the fades lifting when the bow is around 5/8" thick.

[mikaluger]

yep techni glue....

[mikaluger]

cut and sanded the tapers today.

[bigbob]

Is that natural reflex or have you done a bit of heat work?

[mikaluger]

I "flipped the tips" a little when I glued on the backing Bob, then I sanded a tiny little bit of curve on the riser and glued that on. I was careful to keep the tips forward of the riser on this one!
So next will be to pencil round the belly edges and then put her on the long string. I want to get her between 40# and 50# @ 28". She's pretty stiff tho, this osage is tuff stuff!

[bigbob]

As Rod said --yellow gold! Looking good.

[mikaluger]

Tillered and test fired today. Bottom limb was a lot stiffer than the top, and was a bugger to tiller right, but I managed to get her round in the end. Osage is well and truly the toughest stuff I have yet encountered, certainly gets some getting used too. The bow shoots well and is lovely to draw. A little noisy for my liking with a little handshock, I will have to work on that. Bow is currently 51 lb @ 28" and holding it's reflex unstrung, no string follow! first for me!!!!
Now to apply a finish.

[longbow steve]

Looks like you have done a great job, Osage is great stuff. Steve

[Stickbow Hunter]

Congrats! I'm glad it turned out well for you.

Jeff

[Goatchaser]

Very nice, once again.

[Nephew]

Well done mate! Always in awe of the level of skill in blokes who make bows!

[yeoman]

Nice bow.

What is it that makes you say Osage is the toughest you've had to deal with?

[mikaluger]

mate, the stuff is SO hard, your tools have to be sharp, but even then the timber will check. I used a rasp on the belly, where I would usually use my spoke shave. I then used my cabinet scraper, but even this was hard. I still have alot of sanding to get the finish I want with all the tooling marks removed. I want the draw weight 3 or 4 lbs less, it's just too much for me at the mo. I may move the bow on. Undecided. This bow packs a punch!

[yeoman]

Have you tried using ironbark? That is a hard wood.

With some agressive sanding and rounding of the corners, you might lose up to 2.5 lb. After a hundred arrows, it may lose just a bit more. Stick with it, and you may be surprised.

[The big Kahuna]

Mik,.... Like Greybeard says, taper the hickory at the tips not the osage and round the edges all the way . Try and radius the belly. Nice bow.
Keep scraping/tillering until you get it to where you want it. That's the beauty of an all wood bow.
You can decrease the poundage.
regards Mark

[yeoman]

Except I'd say don't remove material from the back at this stage, as the only surface is the back.

You could give the backing an increasingly trapezoidal shape toward the tips, which would reduce the cross sectional area of the backing.

But then, depending on how it is taking set, you may not need to bother.

[mikaluger]

getting there....

[yeoman]

Very nice!

[bigbob]

very elegant bow! Like it!

[Stickbow Hunter]

That Osage sure looks nice!

Jeff

[Flatliner]

Very nice Mika, the Osage and the hickory go well together.

Rob.