Vertical grain problem

[bluegill]

After reading a recent post by Jawge. I remembered I have an osage stave that has some vertical grain issues. As you can see in the pic the grain goes off the edge of the limb and then sweeps back on to the stave. The lower stave is nice and straight. So my question is on a piece like this do you break the rules and just lay out a bow?  Should I back it?

Just looking for opinions.

Thanks Sean

[Pat B]

Will you post pics of the whole stave?  What will happen if you follow the grain from one end to the other?     Pat

[bluegill]

Pat,

Here is a full length shot, the yellow line follows the grain.

Sean

[George Tsoukalas]

The stave was band sawed - looks like. I see how the grain goes off the stave. I guess you follow it as best you can and hope for the best. Jawge

[bluegill]

You are correct Jawge, it was sawed. I don't have anything in this piece as it was a bonus from another stave deal.

Thanks Sean

[Pat B]

How long is the stave to where the grain runs off? If you have enough length you can make a bendy handle bow. I regularly make bows of 60"t/t for my 26" draw with good results. Some have rigid handles some bend through the handle.

[bluegill]

Pat,
'
The grain runs out at 46 inches, too short for my draw for sure. I am leaning towards cutting it as long as I can and waiting until I come up with another billet, which souldn't be to much longer.

Sean

[Pat B]

How wide is it?  You can easily make a 60# bow with a 1" wide osage stave. Cut off the grain run off split the stave in half, splice it and go from there.     Pat

[Eric Krewson]

Every osage bow that failed on me failed because of a snaky grain running off the bow. Yours is pretty severe, some of mine were barely visible.

My advice is to consider the stave as one with a good billet in it and wait until you find another to splice in and complete the bow.

[bluegill]

Thanks Guys,

Pat I think I can eek out a bow doing that but know I probably can come up with another billet and splice that on as Eric has suggested.

Sean

[Pat B]

If you can get more wood, then that is the way to go. I don't always have that option so I'm a scrounger...and fortunately for me a pretty lucky one!     Pat

[Roy Steele]

I can only see one thing to do.Thats cut it off an make a shorter bow.