Author Topic: you guys all speak bowyerese  (Read 6799 times)

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Offline Dakota Kid

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you guys all speak bowyerese
« on: March 28, 2015, 12:24:18 am »
Hello all. My wife and friends have threatened to muzzle me if I mention anything about bows, wood, trees, or tools to work them. All I hear is "I don't care what kind of tree that is or what kind of bow it could make." I decided it was high time to find others that spoke my language. 
I don't consider myself new to the board seeing as how it's been a wonderful teacher for nearly a year now. I still feel the need to introduce myself as new because I've been silent until now. I'll give a brief background for the sake of character development. 8) I'm an artist/ creator both professionally and privately. I love learning new skills and taking on interesting projects . About a year ago my oldest daughter expressed an interest in archery after watching me practice with my compound(dirty word, sorry). I decided to make her a pvc bow after watching a tutorial video. From the video, the pvc bow's performance seemed equivalent to the youth fiberglass bows most of us learned on. It was surprisingly strong and easy to make. I ended up making a 45# one for myself the same day. After I made about 20 or so pvc bows I decided to go for a wood one. How much different could it be, right? I broke the first six. My old way of learning, acquire a basic knowledge and try it until you succeed, didn't seem to be working in this case. More research and mostly patience led me to a successful oak board bow. It has never taken me 7 tries to get something right, ever. I found that difficulty strangely irresistible and was hooked from there. I even gave up watching television because I'd rather break wood in the basement. I have two full racks of wooden bows I've made thus far (10 give or take), with 30+ staves in the rafters waiting their turn.
I've all but retired the compound, though I still take the x-bow out hunting simply because it's good at making clean kills. Primitive shooting is fun, but I don't think I'm ready to risk wounding an animal. I hope to make my first traditional harvest next year after a summer of practice with a hornbeam billet bow that started as an experiment. I thought it was destined to fail, but it decided to do the opposite and out perform all my others.  It had a 90 degree bend and quickly rounded back to straight. I was running low on good wood to work with so I started messing with the billets. I was flipping them around seeing if I could get it to work somehow and all of a sudden it just  looked right.


I know it looks way out of whack, but the tiller was even and shoots like a champ. I can see in hind sight the handle has quite a different plane than the limbs, but it doesn't seem to matter when it comes to shooting. It's far from the prettiest bow I've made, but pretty can't fill my belly.

Aside from the introduction I would also like to thank all of those who have shared their knowledge with the world via this site. This is knowledge that must be preserved.
 
I have nothing but scorn for all weird ideas other than my own.
~Terrance McKenna

Offline Buckeye Guy

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2015, 03:24:32 pm »
Welcome aboard !
Guy Dasher
The Marshall Primitive Archery Rendezvous
Primitive Archery Society
Having  fun
To God be the glory !

Offline medicinewheel

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2015, 03:39:46 am »
... My wife and friends have threatened to muzzle me if I mention anything about bows, wood, trees, or tools to work them. All I hear is "I don't care what kind of tree that is or what kind of bow it could make." ...

Sounds familiar...  8) 8) 8)

Welcome to PA!
Frank from Germany...

Offline Del the cat

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #3 on: March 30, 2015, 06:58:54 am »
Welcome aboard.
Two words if you are new to wooden bows...
Simple & Slow
Simple is good when applied to every field of engineering.
Slow is good when applied to making wooden bows.
Have fun.
Del
Health warning, these posts may contain traces of nut.

Offline Badly Bent

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2015, 11:12:56 pm »
Welcome DK. Your well on your way to your first primitive bow hunt, keep at it and you'll be as hopelessly
obsessed with the whole experience just like the rest of us. :) Actually it already sounds like there is no turning back for you.
I ain't broke but I'm badly bent.

Offline Dakota Kid

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #5 on: April 02, 2015, 02:14:11 am »
Thanks for the welcome everyone. And..

You're right there's no hope, I'm totally hooked, which is okay by me. I've definitely had worse vises than this. At least at the end of a bowyer bender you've got a bow to show for your efforts(well half the time anyway). Plus if you keep it simple, it CAN be a relatively cheap hobby as well. I think the powers that be are also on my side. I found a small grove of wild yew(Canadian) a few weeks ago. They aren't exactly common in Pennsylvania. I'll take it as a sign that my skills are improving and I'll need quality staves soon. 
I have nothing but scorn for all weird ideas other than my own.
~Terrance McKenna

Offline TimothyR

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #6 on: April 02, 2015, 07:40:13 pm »
That sounds very familiar.  My wife is always telling me to stop looking at trees and keep my eyes on the road :laugh:
I guess she's right though.  Welcome to the life!
Freedom dies one compromise at a time. III%

Offline JoJoDapyro

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2015, 08:19:38 pm »
As a bow builder and a knapper I can say at least its just trees. I have a hard time due to rocks and trees.
If you always do what you always did you'll always get what you always got.
27 inch draw, right handed. Bow building and Knapping.

Offline Dakota Kid

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #8 on: April 03, 2015, 02:18:51 pm »
Thankfully I'm not into knapping yet. I have a metal working back ground so I never gave it a second thought and just forge my own points. I've always been of the opinion that there's a reason stone points don't show up very much in the fossil record after a culture is introduced to metal. I think re-sharpening has a lot to do with it. That's not to say that I don't appreciate the skill/art or the effectiveness of the points. I think I heard somewhere that an obsidian shard is way sharper than any metal could ever hope to be.
 
I had a friend who attended a local college with a renowned anthropology/ paleontology dept. During her senior year, they made atlatls and stone axes that they took on a boar hunt in WV. After catching one in a pit trap they opened fire. She was the one who delivered the kill shot. Then they butchered it with the axes and spit roasted it. Somewhere I have a photo of her with the bloody ax in one hand and the boar head in the other. I should let her know about these sites she might have some valuable input.   

I've always been a bit of a rock hound so I notice them while out and about. I point out what I know to my 10 yr old who is way into geology. If left unattended she'll dig/collect for hours. It's nice when we go trout fishing in the creeks , if she get tired of fishing I can pull out her geology kit and she's off fossil hunting. Perhaps I should get her into knapping, that way at least one member of the family knows what to do if there's no metal available.
I have nothing but scorn for all weird ideas other than my own.
~Terrance McKenna

Offline TimothyR

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Re: you guys all speak bowyerese
« Reply #9 on: April 04, 2015, 01:55:10 am »
I think these skills are very valuable.  Who know when we'll have to use them. If something ever happened and we had to survive without all the luxuries that we have today (like power and grocery stores) than we will have a skill that most people don't have. I need to get into knapping if only to learn how to do it. Hopefully things in the world dont get any worse.  But thats another discussion for another forum.
Freedom dies one compromise at a time. III%