This is the third page of my journey in hunting a bamboo backed osage bow. Go to the First Page for the whole story.
I have now gotten to the point of thinking about the finish on this BOW. I can call it a bow now because I have put a few arrows through it. And oh, does it fling them! :-)
I am going to start with some antler tip overlays. They aren't
needed for holding the string on, or to protect the nocks, they are just
ornamentation. I've decided to make them nice and natural looking
deer antler and also to recess them into the tips so that the lines of
the bow aren't interupted. This is my first shot at this so come
along and maybe we'll learn something. First step is to get the tips
at finish width of 3/8".
After tapering the last 6 inches or so down to this width, I measured
the amount I wanted to take off to recess the tips into the bow.
And then rasped and filed it down.
Next step was to cut the antler. I basically just guessed the
angle and cut it on the band saw. Then I fit the overlays to the
tips.
The overlays are going to run about 1 1/2" into the tip.
Here's what I hope the finished tip will look something like.
Use your imagination and forgive the crappy artwork :-)
Then I epoxied them on.
I left a little heat on them for good measure.
