Bows, Ponds and Wood

It was scorching hot yesterday and a man's fancy turns to messing about in the pond when having a break from the bow. One edge of the pond has old Oak fence posts lying flat along it with limestone boulders resting on them. One of the posts was a tad low to the water and had rotted away to almost nothing, the boulders were in danger of slumping into the water. Excellent fun standing upto my knees in the pod removing the boulders and old Oak post.
In the woods near me there are some fallen and felled trees, I thought two of 'em were Oak... nope, one was Willow, one was Ash, I couldn't tell from the bark and it was only when I'd sawed through I thought it didn't smell right for Oak and was a tad pale.
I finally found a fallen Oak limb, a bit small and a bit rotten round the outside, but it will still last longer than Willow of Ash... mind the Willow would probably have sprouted! It's surprisingly dificult to identify a tree, the clue with the willow was that the two adjacent trees look like Oak until you looked high up into the canopy and saw the leaves, these where down near the stream. The other tree that had been felled was higher up in the woods ... no Willow there, adjacent trees were Oak, but there was a lot of Ash and Maple too. Just goes to show how tricky it is.
A big thunderstorm last night has raised the water level in the pond a good few inches and washed the remaining boulder into the pond.

Enough of my woodland/pond rambling, back to the bow.

I filed stringer grooves in the tips and got it to a low brace (2") it was hard work getting that first brace. The bow is still way over weight, but the string line looked good and both limbs are flexing. I'm narrowing the tips a bit more and reducing the limbs more, measuring up for an even thickness taper and reducing/cleaning up the sapwood.
I don't s'pose there will be startling progress today (gotta go shopping... groan), I've just had it back on the tiller after some work and it's 80# @ 19" from the 2" brace.
I can take the brace height up a bit as I keep working at it.

I'm keeping the bow fairly wide for a warbow look, but it's being slowly narrowed a bit as I progress. One worrying knot on the corner of belly and side has all but disappeared and a loose knot very near one tip is being pegged... I'll try to avoid chopping my finger when I make the peg this time.

Maybe an update later, or at least some more pics tomorrow.