Osage bow
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Chuditch
- Posts: 207
- Joined: Tue Apr 01, 2008 12:15 am
- Location: From Newman, Edge of the Little Sandy Desert
- Contact:
Re: Osage bow
Hey Tex i live in WA, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, check my profile avatar signature. Cheers mate.
DjidiDjidi, Nullark Gullart Nyarrt.
Re: Osage bow
No worries fellow bow hunter.
Yes there is osage in this country.
Yes there is osage in this country.
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Dennis La Varenne
- Posts: 1776
- Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2003 10:56 pm
- Location: Tocumwal, NSW. Australia
Re: Osage bow
Tex,
A sound rule of thumb for working out a minimum selfbow length relative to draw length is to have limbs twice as long as your drawlength plus the length of your handle riser. The length of a handle riser will be from flare to flare in a flatbow.
Greybeard asked a pertinent question about your drawlength. You will find that your drawlength will not be as long on a straight handled bow as it is on a high wrist recurved bow. The difference can be from one to two inches because of the low wrist grip and a slightly bent bow arm which is the commonest way to shoot straight handled bows comfortably.
I have made the majority of my bows using Osage. Latterly I have left the sapwood on and used it. Unless you spray it liberally with household disinfectant, it will rot. I still have a couple of Osage staves here at home which were debarked and sprayed nearly 10 years ago and the sapwood is as white as the day it was cut. I made one particular ELB from Osage with the sapwood left on and it worked fine and retained about 1/2 inch of reflex which is unusual on and ELB. Leaving the sapwood on allows for a deeper stave if your splits turn out a bit on the small side.
TBB will recommend that you remove the sapwood. I prefer to keep it on. Either way will yield a sound bow so long as the sapwood is well disinfected.
Your log is from a quite young branch. The older branches have much more deeply fissured bark looking more like Ironbark, but a different colour of course.
Dennis La Varenne
A sound rule of thumb for working out a minimum selfbow length relative to draw length is to have limbs twice as long as your drawlength plus the length of your handle riser. The length of a handle riser will be from flare to flare in a flatbow.
Greybeard asked a pertinent question about your drawlength. You will find that your drawlength will not be as long on a straight handled bow as it is on a high wrist recurved bow. The difference can be from one to two inches because of the low wrist grip and a slightly bent bow arm which is the commonest way to shoot straight handled bows comfortably.
I have made the majority of my bows using Osage. Latterly I have left the sapwood on and used it. Unless you spray it liberally with household disinfectant, it will rot. I still have a couple of Osage staves here at home which were debarked and sprayed nearly 10 years ago and the sapwood is as white as the day it was cut. I made one particular ELB from Osage with the sapwood left on and it worked fine and retained about 1/2 inch of reflex which is unusual on and ELB. Leaving the sapwood on allows for a deeper stave if your splits turn out a bit on the small side.
TBB will recommend that you remove the sapwood. I prefer to keep it on. Either way will yield a sound bow so long as the sapwood is well disinfected.
Your log is from a quite young branch. The older branches have much more deeply fissured bark looking more like Ironbark, but a different colour of course.
Dennis La Varenne
Dennis La Varénne
Have the courage to argue your beliefs with conviction, but the humility to accept that you may be wrong.
QVIS CVSTODIET IPSOS CVSTODES (Who polices the police?) - DECIMVS IVNIVS IVVENALIS (Juvenal) - Satire VI, lines 347–8
What is the difference between free enterprise capitalism and organised crime?
HOMO LVPVS HOMINIS - Man is his own predator.
Have the courage to argue your beliefs with conviction, but the humility to accept that you may be wrong.
QVIS CVSTODIET IPSOS CVSTODES (Who polices the police?) - DECIMVS IVNIVS IVVENALIS (Juvenal) - Satire VI, lines 347–8
What is the difference between free enterprise capitalism and organised crime?
HOMO LVPVS HOMINIS - Man is his own predator.
Re: Osage bow
Thanks I shall disinfect it.