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Hunting the Osage Bow

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Pappy:
Glad to have you back  hammerstone, :) I have read his book and it has some good info, and his finish work was awesome, I think he was a high end cabinet maker ,I just prefer flat belly so really don't follow much of what he says.The only real problem I every had with Dean's writings ( rest his soul ) was he came of as if his way was the only RIGHT way and that is just so not true, lot of way to skin a cat. sorry Del. ;):)
 Pappy

Badger:
     I think a flat belly will outperform a rounded belly. I tend to make mine flattish but slightly rounded, just because it is easier for me. Dean and I had a few minor run-ins on websites, but when we started talking on the phone, we got along much better. Dean was an excellent craftsman.

Eric Krewson:
Dean story; when I was still pretty green as a bow maker, I tried a lot of stuff to see if it would work better than what was known at the time. One thing I did regularly was flip the top limp to the bottom limb to put the stiff limb on the bottom if I goofed up on wood removal. Apparently, Dean thought this was an abomination and said online that I was an insult to the true art of bow making.

Years down the road some troll jumped on me like they always do online and stated that I didn't know anything about bow making and I was an idiot, the usual keyboard warrior stuff.

I told the jerk that my bows had won over a dozen national championships, 40 or 50 state championships and more seconds and thirds that could be counted so I apparently knew something about bow making, that shut Mr. Jerk up.

Dean was reading the thread and stated that his bows never won anything, he never had an unkind word to say to me after that. 

I called him to order a bowyers edge tillering tool; he picked up and we had a wonderful chat for about an hour.

I sent him a tillering gizmo and included a note that he had my blessing to make them and sell them on his site if he wanted to as I considered the design "share-ware" and didn't want anything in return, he didn't respond to my gift. This may have been in the early time frame of his developing brain tumor. 

Hamish:
Definitely more than one way to make a good bow, even of the same basic design. A lot of it comes down to what suits you, and what gels with your way of thinking.

Dean's method is definitely prescriptive. It was what he thought was best. It is usually what is logical, and efficient, though. He also explained why he believed this to be so. You can understand his reasoning why he did what he did, which I can respect even if I know it's not the only method to achieve equal results. Sometimes the benefits are only marginal, or stylistic, I can see how that might cause disagreement.

It took me a while to get my head around his method. I like the results, but it's not the only approach to making an awesome bow., so I'm happy to use whatever method or combination of methods works best for me, on each particular bow.

Its always cool to see what other people think, and what works for them, when it comes to bowmaking. Just when you think there's nothing more to learn, someone comes up with a new or different perspective. There's not hurt trying something new if you feel like it.

Pappy:
My thoughts exactly Hamish, been doing it for 40 years but every now and then I see someone doing something and think,  ??? Man I never thought of that :) and I am always careful when people want me to help them to add " this is how I do it but it is for sure not the only way to get it done " their are a few rules that really need to be followed but the rest just find what works for you. :)
 Pappy

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