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RE: Building your own bow. Is it hard?

i to am interested in building my own bows beening fortune enough to be employeed in the woodworking business, i have my raw materials at hand, and at the right price too. 3 rivers has videos on building recurves and longbows. i was thinking about looking into, and next month is the sportsmans show in harrisburg, pa hope to talk to some professional bowyers there for advice.

wulff

RE: Building your own bow. Is it hard?

Carl,

I agree with the rolling bases suggestion. That will enable me to park the equipment out of the way when not in use, but get them out in the middle when I need to start cutting/sanding.

Thanks!

Bill

Praise the Lord, He is worthy

RE: Building your own bow. Is it hard?

Vern, Can't speak for glass bows, but I have made a couple dozen or so selfbows. I don't know if "hard" is the right word, but they are challenging. Every piece of wood is different and you have to remove wood as "it" demands to make it into a bow. Patience is the key with all of them, since if you remove wood in haste, mistakes are bound to happen. Making bows from clean straight staves is pretty straight forward as described in the books. The "real" challenge comes when you have to make decisions to work your way around obstacles...the stuff they don't tell you about. :) (ie; Deciding how to deal with a rotted knot, a crack, limb twist, bowsting the lies off center, one limb that is reflexed more than another or is snakey, etc.) Your odds of making a solid hunting bow will improve dramitically if you use GOOD bow wood (hickory or osage)that is straight and clean of knots, humps, and other defects.

The only thing actually "hard" about bowmaking is the physical act of doing certain tasks. You'll kill yourself dragging osage log splits out of the swamp, wear your arms out removing the bark and sapwood from an osage stave with a drawknife, and bust a hernia trying to string it for the first time after initial "floor tillering". But after you've made your first bow, you wouldn't have it any other way!