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picked it up again

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Ranasp:
So with the help of this forum years ago, I started up on my first self bow.  I got to the point where I had roughly shaped it, started in on the handle...And then I put it down to sit for years. 

   I think I just didn't have the eye yet to see what was right with it, only what was wrong, and I was too worried about screwing it up.  Well when this forum was revived, I took a look at it and...I think it's not too bad!  It definitely needs thinning out, untwisting, and tillering, but I can see a bow instead of just a heap of mistakes. 

   I'm working on the handle now, removing material with a farrier's rasp and smoothing it with a flat file.  I'll update the pic once I get the handle done.

sleek:
Glad to see you are picking it back up. What type wood is that?

Ranasp:
Osage, I think?  I have the back down to one ring, and only been taking material away from the sides and belly.

bjrogg:
Glad to see you got the courage up to pick it up again.

I know it can be scary and hard to see anything but the problems, but it is just a piece of wood waiting for you to bring it back to life. Give it a chance. Good luck

Bjrogg

Eric Krewson:
Best to put up that farrier's rasp, things might go too quickly with it. Make yourself a tillering gizmo as well, the instructions are in the how to section on this site.

I put this sentence in the Gizmo instructions; "when you get the urge to reach for something that cuts faster, put down your tools, go have a cup of coffee and wait until these feelings have passed".

I ran into a guy in the late 80s at the tournaments, like me he was shooting a traditional bow which was rare at the time. We became good friends; he was a pretty good flintknapper and overall craftsman. When I started making selfbows he told me he had tried to make selfbows and broken about 50 of them and never got a shooter.

After I made a few shooters I invited him over to make bows with me, I gave him a good osage bow blank. I was working with my back to him while he was cutting the basic shape of the bow on a belt sander with a 36 grit belt. I heard him cuss, turned around and saw that he had tried to floor tiller the bow with the sander, he slipped up, went too deep at the fade and cut through almost to the back rendering the stave useless.

He said "I wanted to shoot it today", I told him it didn't work that way and showed him how to slow down. Turns out that he has tried to make all of his failure bows in one day and they all broke.

I limited him to slow cutting tools, nothing aggressive and he made his first shooter bow. After that, he made dozens of shooter bows before he died of some rare lung disease.  Old Buzzy, a one of a kind guy.

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