I am currently getting ready to make a bow out of Osage. Actually, i am going to. Start in about August, when the wood is seasoned.  Anny suggestions, hints, i dont even have an idea, besides a long bow. Thanks in advance paracordslinger says: ''

Steven wrote on Jan 6^th, 2012 at 11:03pm:

I like this in more than one level. For one thing, scary sharp should make the user very cautious, resulting in fewer uh-oh moments.

Well first buy The Traditional Bowyers Bible Vol 1, And then if you haven't already, split the log. and seal the ends with some white glue to avoid cracks.

You can either leave the sapwood and the bark on and it will take a little longer to dry, would definitely be ready by august though, or you could remove both and get down to the heart wood and it would be ready around the end of april or early may.

Be very carefull when "chasing rings" as if you dig into the next ring there is a very high chance you will get a back plinter or your bow will sudenly become much shorter. 

Again reading TBB 1 will tell you almost everything you need to know. Also take 10min and get an acount on Paleo Planet. There are a few primitive archers on here like myself, Bill Skinner, and David Morningstar, but there are dozens of primitve archers that have lots of expierience on osage bows there (including us three, my username is Woodland Archer). Either way you also might want to try making a Red oak board bow first just to learn the way wood works and to get some expierience before you dig into a good osage stave (It will probably break or be underweight after many tiller adjustments, but even that's part of the learning process to help you make better bows in the future.). You will learn a LOT with your first few bows so it would be really nice to have at least some of that knowledge when you make that osage bow.

Whatever happens, don't give up, primitve archery is no doubt one of the most difficult paths to take but it's also the most sceneic and the most rewarding.

  I suggest you make a bark on self bow.  Just take your log and chop it down to shape with an axe not touching the side you want for the back, giving you bare wood on the inside and a bark backing. I also found that a flat bow was easier to tiller than a D bow, but perhaps it is different for different people.

"The Backyard Bowyer: The Beginner's Guide to Building Bows "
VERY good book!  Amazon has it.

i used primitive archer my first time as well (only time unfortunately). trace out a bow pattern onto the wood, decide what amount of taper you want, and start cutting it to shape from there. i used a cleaver to cut out the rough shape, but you could use an axe as well. i made my pattern slightly large to allow a margin of error. i then whittled down the stave to the final shape with a knife. after that i continued whittling it until i could pull it back for tillering... which is where i made a mistake that i'll hopefully fix. i made the stave too stiff so i couldn't tiller it right. however, i had tried bending it so many times that i had caused around 2 inches of string set. after i did get it thin enough for tillering, and went on from there. unfortunately midway through i had four inches of string set, or 4/5 of how much it was actually going to be when it was finished (i aimed for 5 inches full brace, or a little less than my pinky to the base of my thumb). after that i had school and whatever so i didn't have a chance to finish it.

From the traditional bowyer's bible you'll actually learn how to select the trees and cut them down yourself, not just starting from the stave, trust me, those books (volumes 1-4) were the best $100 I ever spent (canadian pricing, taxes in and all that jazz).

I haven't ever made a bow myself, I'm still making my first one, unfortunately I got those books after I started making the bow, so it's a half-complete red oak board bow, I recommend starting with one of those anyway though, it's cheap, easy, readily available, and I'm only going for about 35-40# so I think I'll get some use out of it anyway.

This does bring up another question I have, I haven't gotten to this stage yet, but where does the arrow rest go in relation to the true center of the bow?

just gotfinished reading backyard bowyer, i am going to make a flatbow, and ieill start with a red oak plank first. then make a beauty out of that osage