OK fellas, here's the deal: I used to make a few selfbows, but it's been several years. As in over ten. I have a very nice stick of osage off a huge old fencerow tree that got bulldozed out. Fact is, I stole it, lol. The highway dept had dumped it in a pile by the gravel road they are widening and paving.

The trunk was a mess and the branches were gnarly, I didn't waste around salvaging, just chainsawed a decent slab and ran.

So I've got a 42" long piece split out, about 2" wide x 2 thick with the inner bark and sapwood on oiuter bark off, one peanut-sized knot 3/4 ways from geometric center of the length and midway width wise.

The tree was freshly down when I got the piece, I soaked the slab in a pond about a week before I split the stave out.

I have wrapped it tightly in Saran wrap and hid it in a closet for a month.

I have a 9 year old niece who wants a bow.

I'm thinking give it another month or two to slow dry before unwrapping and roughing it in?

Strictly up to you. Personally I would rough it out to floor tiller dimensions right now and then let it finish drying.

Wrapping it up and submerging it isn't a good idea. Skip that next time around. Best practice is to cut, peel bark/sapwood, seal ends and back and store in a dark, cool area for a few years. This piece needs to be unwrapped and allowed to breath for at least 6 months to a year.

I'm not of the pond soaking, plastic wrapping school. I'd let her get some air and start whittlin'. I've seen perfectly good staves ruined because they were wrapped, or just covered, in plastic. These just all happened to be whitewood staves. Osage might be able to take it, but I see no good reason for it here. Your climate should be like mine.

If I want wood to dry slowly, which I often do when fresh cut, I simply put it someplace with a higher relative humidity for the first few weeks, like my basement, or the part of my garage that isn't heated or air conditioned.

I've had osage check very badly when dried too fast, that's why I sealed it up

Personally I would listen to Jeff Durnell and Pearl Drums.

Go with Pearl and Jeff. Arvin

I would remove bark and sapwood even rough out to close to bow dimensions. Then seal ends and back with a couple coats of shellac. You want the belly to dry out before the back. If back dries faster it will shrink more than belly and crack. Removing wood you won't need from belly helps belly dry faster to. I've never tried the put stave in pond for a couple weeks but have heard of it before. I've been told it replaces sap with water and then stave will dry more evenly. Also possibly helps keep bug out. I have zero personal experience with it though. Good Luck I'm sure your niece will love and treasure it. Bjrogg

Fuzzy, Good to see you back and making bows. I agree with Jeff and PD too. My site may help you. Jawge

http://traditionalarchery101.com

thanks guys. I got the stave out and unwrapped it last night. I was afraid the dry air int he house with woodstove would cause it too dry unevenly if I didn't wrap it. I'm gonna reduce the belly this evening and get the sapwood off and see what I have to work with

Fuzzy before you remove to much belly you might want to chase a ring on back and seal it. That way you know what you have to work with. Don't reduce to much before you know where your back of bow is. Bjrogg

thanks Bjrogg I DO remember that much :)

Sorry Fuzzy. I'm new here and didn't know how much experience you have. Sometimes they can get smaller looking for the back. I remember when I first started, thinking why bother chasing a ring on the whole stave? Why not just rough out bow and have less surface to chase a ring on. The first time i chased ring I was very surprised how much smaller my stave got. Bjrogg PS seems like I always start from wrong end to. Get to other end and gotta go a couple rings deeper.lol. Bjrogg

Bj, I've been acquainted with Cecil for quite a while but I was going to remind him anyway about getting down to a heart ring and sealing it.

Good to see you back at it Cecil. Last time I saw you you gave me a couple of good locust staves and I was pretty happy. Now I have access to Osage and can't get too excited about locust. ;-)

42" seems pretty short. You might ought to consider a bend-through-the-handle design.

Jim

Bjrogg, no apologies necessary and no offense taken. Sorry if my reply seemed so.

I am amazed at what I do remember, as it's been a lot of years since I tried this.

Jim, how'd the black locust trun out? Are you still in Kentucky? As I remember you were "Jim in Maine" when I donated the locust.

I still have a few of your "reparrows" sitting in a drawer, those things were awesome for repairing broken cedar shafts, I even made some red oak arrows and footed them with cherry reparrows, awesome, heavy hog arrows!

Yep. I'm still in western Kentucky. The locust made a couple of good bows One eventually broke on a dry fire.

I'm glad it served you well. Locust isn't bad bow wood.

OK fellas, I reduced the belly last night and removed the inner bark remnants. Gonna chase a back ring this afternoon

didn't get to work on the stick last evening, the SO had a couple projects for me .... I'll try and get some build-along pics going. I used to love building kid's bows

got it pretty much to rough dimensions and bending just a bit. Gonna put it up a dry a bit longer

I'm gonna need a string for this little beauty, anyone on here make Flemish strings still?

bump for a picture

hey Bowaholic, sorry I haven't snapped pics yet. Been kinda wild on the homefront lately, raining every day, garden weeds and grass growing like crazy. I'll try and get a couple

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