REM on Austin City Limits

REM is on Austin City limits right now. Michael Stipe is pushing 50,and so is the rest of the band.Watching experienced and talented musicians is like watching craftsmen at work. They know what they're doing, they do it very well, and they do it effortlessly.

Coming to a parking lot near you.

This takes chutzpah, but we may be seeing more of this as the price of gas goes up.

Five Fingers shoes

These things are crazy!

M shoots her first selfbow

M and I went out to the ECIA archery range to try out her new white oak selfbow.

The practice range.

















One a side note: Traditional archers like to grimace and wear fedoras. Well, at least some do. It's part of the"look".



































I don't know about you, but I think M does the "Traditional Archery Grimace" better than the guys. Yeah, they have fedoras, but M has the gritty stare of the traditional archer.
















M was surprised by the performance of her selfbow. She said the selfbow seemed to be more "zippy" than her Pearson All-American. I went for a slightly more elliptical tiller on her bow, so that may have helped. I figured her light bow would need that extra nudge. She spent most of her range time getting used to the new bow. A selfbow is a slightly different animal than a pistol-grip fiberglass recurve.

And now, the picture you've been waiting for. M at full draw.

















I'm a very lucky man to be in love with someone who is my best friend, and enjoys archery.

Osage Flat Bow dimensions

(not to scale)














(Also see Selfbow Handle Dimensions)

There's more than one way to skin the osage cat. Osage can be made into narrow bows, wide bows, rounded belies or squared bellies. Which design is best suited for osage? I'm not sure about "best", but I think we can discuss a design that I consider ideally suited for osage.

Let's examine the properties of osage. High compression and tension strength. Osage can suffer tillering errors, and flaws in the wood such as vicious knots and twists that would break other woods. Osage is very dense. Because of this, wide limbs on osage have lots of mass, and can be thin. That does not mean you can't make a wide osage bow. My first bow was a wide osage bow, and it's still shooting. Osage can be made with wide limbs, but it is not usually an ideal design.

Given the properties of osage, a narrower limb is more ideal. The design that was taught to me, and I've seen variations of it in other books, is a stiff handled flatbow whose limbs have a gradual width taper. The limb is 1.5" at the flare-outs and tapers from there in straight lines to just under .5" at the nocks. With yew, I've made the same design but with 1.25" width at the flare outs (see the Traditional Bowyer's Bible Vol.1). Red mulberry: 1.5", though I think 1.75" would have worked slightly better. Bow length for the flatbow is figured by this thumbnail sketch formula:

(draw length X 2) + 10 inches = bow length.

A 28" draw equals a 66" length. My 30" draw equals a 70" length. Draw length can be shortened by a few inches if needed. I've made 67" osage bows for my 30" draw. When you go shorter-than-ideal, you have to really make sure your limbs are sharing the load evenly.

For a bend-through-the-handle bow (D bow), I would make the make the width 1.25" for osage, and would not narrow the handle section. For a D bow, the bow should never be drawn more than half its length. A 60" bow should not be drawn more than 30" for example. A D bow can be made shorter than a stiff-handled bow because there is more working wood. My rule to take the bow's length, double it, and then add at least 4" to that length. Go longer depending on your needs. These general rules of thumb will keep you within safe length parameters for an osage bow.

A gradual width taper has the fault of there not being as much taper in the limbs thickness. The thickness still tapers, but not as much. With the gradual width taper dialed in, the bow is half-tillered before you start. As you reduce thickness evenly along the limb, the bow will come to a proper bend a little easier than if all your tapering was done only in thickness. You also have the correct ratio of wood in the limbs: more meat in the near handle wood, and less wood in the outer tips. The result is a bow with snappy cast.

An added benefit of the gradual width taper is an aesthetic one. The bow presents a clean, elegant profile. No harsh transitions in width.

This design is not a pyramid design because there is not an extreme difference in width from the flare-outs to the tips. In a pyramid bow, the limb is 2" wide or more at the flare outs and then tapers to under .5" at the nocks. The benefits of this design have been discussed in the Traditional Bowyer's Bible Vol.3. It is a very efficient design, depending on the wood. I've yet to make a pyramid bow, but it would be a good design for many whitewood, assuming the stave was not high-crowned. Currently, it seems the Holmegaard is the more fashionable design to use with whitewoods. I suspect though, that a pyramid may be easier to make and have at least similar, and perhaps better results.

There is no magic design or wood. The properties of the wood (tension and compression strength, density, earlywood/latewood ratios, etc) and the characteristics of the stave (straight vs. character stave, severity of the crown on the bow's back, knots, etc) can vary wildly and affect your design considerations. The osage flatbow design I've outline, with its 1.5" width and gradual taper to under .5" at the nocks, has served me well. It has worked with straight osage, character staves, bamboo backed osage bows, dense and light osage. I'm sure you'll find that it will work for your stave of osage as well.

Three Vintage Recurves

(Click picture for larger version)











I've got a bunch of selfbow posts I'm working on. In the meantime, a gratuitous recurve picture.

Three vintage recurves that I've talked about before. The top bow is a 1967 Herter's International Match Hunter, 69" long. The middle bow is M's Ben Pearson All American, and the third is a Ben Pearson Cougar.

Women's White Oaks Selfbow, 2

Previously.

I sanded M's bow. The scraper leaves a fairly smooth surface, so coarse sandpaper wasn't needed. I sanded the bow with fine grit sandpaper. I wiped off any wood dust with a rag dipped in denatured alcohol.

I applied 4 coats of Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane on the bow, sanding with 600 grit polishing paper after the 2nd and third coats. On the third coat I inked the bow. The Helmsman added a slight tint to the bow's color which brought out the beauty of the grain. (click on pictures for a better view)












































The bow has a can handle wrap, which consists of 6mm binder cane from the crafts store. Soak the cane in boiling water, wrap, let dry, and finish with urethane. The strike plate and arrow rest are covered with industrial velcro.

Once M and I get to the range, I'll have more pictures posted.








Addendum: Pictured below is my lemonwood/hickory/walnut composite bow and M's bow. There is a marked difference in size between the two. A selfbow is custom made. M's draw wight, draw length, and hands are much different than mine.