Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Around the Campfire => Topic started by: chamookman on January 03, 2015, 04:50:38 am
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OK Guys and Gals - time to fess up and regale Us with Your worst Bow Boner. Mine was during a Bow Class. I was showing how to file in string groves and had a students stave in My hands. As I was Yakking and filing I heard chuckles coming from both Gary and Matt - yep I had filed them in backwards :-[. Good thing the stave was plenty long and quickly fixed, while I was wiping the Egg from My face :laugh:. What say You ? Bob
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I was building a recurve years ago and bent one tip up and one down. :o At least nobody else was there. ;D
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Mine has to be ruining a perfect ERC stave Eddie traded me, not long ago. I reduced the profile to 2", THEN reduced sapwood..................bad idea gang. You will end up with a super duper narrow bow by the time your sapwood is reduced to 1/4-3/8" thick from 1". That hurt as it was a beauty of a stick of ERC. I ended up tillering out a sweet 70" bow full of chrysals.......:(
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One thing I do occasionally is to reduce the belly of a stave to an inch or so of thickness before I chase a ring on the back to speed up the drying process. I have learned the hard way this is a very bad idea, I often find a flaw in the back that forces me to go down multiple grains and end up with a stave that is kiddie bow thickness when I get done.
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ooooh! :'( That was the prettiest piece of ERC I've ever seen. I didn't do anything to a bow, but I did chop enough feathers for a dozen arrows before I realized I chopped them all backwards.
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I have problems with bows jumping off my bench when I turn around. Especially reflexed bows. My biggest goof was burning a bunch of osage staves when I first started cutting bow wood because I thought the rings were to thin for bows.
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Mine is that I still haven't learned to stop trying to make bows. I have cut nocks backwards, almost made to male splices on a set of billets ( wood doesnt swing that way ) cut the shelf on the wrong end, cut shelfs.... the list is long and hard earned.
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Recently I cut a Z style handle only to find out I did it for a left hand shooter.
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You guys are great. Keep'm coming! Just what I needed. best therapy I can think of. :-*
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Can I add another one to my list? Today I made some wood jaw pads for a vise. I had them fitting perfect. All I had to do was counter sink the holes and install them. Yep, I counter sunk the wrong side of the pads ::)
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Cut in the arrow shelf for a leftie. And cut in a shelf on center when I wanted it over 1" above center.
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I once tossed about half the nails in a box away because the head was on the wrong side....
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That's a good one sleek?? ???
I have cut the string nocks in backwards twice in a row.....on the same bow!!!! duh :-[ :-[ :laugh:
DBar
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For you guys that like to cut nocks in backwards Mississippi Dave invented a fancy way of fixing that mistake at the Classic last year. Your string has to have a big loop for it to work right.
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Snapbucket/10621A80.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Snapbucket/4345B65D.jpg)
(http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r55/clintanders/Snapbucket/2E3157A3.jpg)
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Yep...that's better than a bowers knot, that shouldn't slip.....off. :)
DBar
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I did a glue up with hickory strip, butternut wood, and a handle riser. I wanted reflex in it. I paid so much attention to the handle and over all glue up that I forgot to notice I left it all with the handle facing up. The bow was resting on two wooden blacks at each tip. I wanted reflex. I got deflex. And on a precious slab of butternut wood.
Duh-oh!
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I once tossed about half the nails in a box away because the head was on the wrong side....
YOU IDIOT!!! Those were for the other side of the wall!!!
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I once tossed about half the nails in a box away because the head was on the wrong side....
YOU IDIOT!!! Those were for the other side of the wall!!!
They were roofing nails JW....
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While making my son Jake a bow a few years ago....Had some Hackberry that i worked down to bow shape. Had it close to bending but still too thick, so I took the belt sander to it to reduce the belly. Hit it for 3-4 minutes....taking wood off the back.
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Chased a ring on a nice osage stave and then, while talking to a nice young fellow who was interested in learning how to make a bow, I proceeded to take the rough side of a farrier's rasp and utterly demolish the back of the bow, thinking that it was the belly (glasses beaded up with sweat, maniac gorilla school of tillering). I invented some types of profanity that I'm sure this boy had never been exposed to. Grabbed another stave and told him "Now we start again". Best goof so far.... I'm sure there will be more. He did have the difference in 'back' and 'belly' firmly galvanized in his mind when he left. ;D
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I'm pretty good with a bandsaw. (Maybe, I should end my story here, you all would get the picture :-[).
Had a straighter than straight, primo osage stave. Longitudinal grain so straight, I was able to draw the bow out with a yardstick. All was going well; cut the first limb...looking good. Turned the stave around and began my cut. Got halfway through the second limb and realized that I was cutting my center line. >:( :o
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I once tossed about half the nails in a box away because the head was on the wrong side....
YOU IDIOT!!! Those were for the other side of the wall!!!
Thanks guys! I needed that this morn'n! ;)
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All excited over my first self bow. Made out of big leaf maple, new it wouldn't be a keeper, for practice. Got it done and decided to cut an arrow shelf... ON THE BELLY!!! Doh!
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I think we have all done the upside down nocks thing have'nt we?
Heres another one. I was having a few too many libations around the campfire one night and wanted to show off a bow of mine. Attempted to string it..."man I don't remember it being that hard to string?" So I tried a little harder ...CRACK was the next sound I heard. Seperated right out of the fade on the belly of the bow that was at that time acting as the back. It did make a good fire poker for the rest of the night though. Danny
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I glued a tip overlay on the belly of a bow once. :o ::). Thankfully I was in my shop solo at the time. 8)
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Ahh. . .Classic memories. That was funny.
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I ditched a bunched of thick ringed yew.
I've recently made bows from other thick ringed yew and I shed a small tear whenever I walk past my junk pile in my back yard.
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All this is just what I needed to hear. Tonight I got about halfway through shaping a handle when it occurred to me that it was upside down, bottom limb on top! >:(
I was able to switch gears and and finish the handle right side up. It actually turned out looking pretty good.(whew!)
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I once was handed a bow by another member here (who shall remain nameless) and he said giver a try. Now right off I noticed it had a knot about the size of a dime ON THE EDGE, of the upper limb, actually I should correct that it was not a knot it was where a not used to be as it was a hole and looked like the knot had fallen out. I even questioned him is this going to even work,, Yea yea I have drawn it lots. I didn't even get to half draw and Boom!! the limb blew up and I punched myself in the face. I calmly handed it back to him and said well back to the drawing board, make an atl atl out of the other half.
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Hehe I have punched myself in the face before. Pissed me off so bad I was tempted to kick my own ass. Lol
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You guys crack me up. Come on JW I know you got a few good stories to tell. Don't be holdin back on us.
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I'm pretty good with a bandsaw. (Maybe, I should end my story here, you all would get the picture :-[).
Had a straighter than straight, primo osage stave. Longitudinal grain so straight, I was able to draw the bow out with a yardstick. All was going well; cut the first limb...looking good. Turned the stave around and began my cut. Got halfway through the second limb and realized that I was cutting my center line. >:( :o
Oh yes... done that one too.
I'm reading through hoping to find one I haven't done yet.
Most wasted effort was sawing down the length of a car leaf spring for a crossbow prod. Each limb was a series of 3 straight cuts.
On the second limb... I made the first cut and then went to saw off the scrap to help the saw cut to blend round into the next straight line.
Yup... I sawed off the limb tip. :o >:(
Tough lesson when you are only about 12yrs old. Haven't done it since tho' (yet ::) )
Oh yeah, one of the other posts reminded me of when I first tried the short draw hunting style that some of you guys use. As I loosed, my right hand jerked back and bust my lip. I'm not sure if that's the correct method ::)
Del
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This bow(Shere Khan) had over 1000 shots through her when one night Evan Williams and I decided to make a 6 piece take down. A bow fully drawn is 9/10th broken. I think I hit 10/10ths on this one. ::)
(http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y199/PatBNC/ShereKhanbroke001.jpg) (http://s5.photobucket.com/user/PatBNC/media/ShereKhanbroke001.jpg.html)
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That Evan Williams can't be trusted in good company, can he? Bad influence on all who know him. Russ
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Funny thread! So the first bow I attempted, I spent a pile of money on a floor tillered bamboo backed hickory bow. I was tillering away, dreaming of the day I would hunt with this awesome weapon. Had it on a tillering tree pulled back to about 20", trying to figure out my next move and the Wife busts the shop door open and says "we're late, we gotta go now" So I run out the door to make it to our appointment on time, and totally left it pulled back on the tree. Two hours later I make it home, so excited to get back at it, just to find it in pieces. Lesson learned...the hard way...again!
Tattoo Dave
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a while back i finished tillering one and was very excited to try it,shot really well and when i slip style unbraced it the string caught a splinter and split the tip very badly.managed to fix it but lesson learned :)
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You guys crack me up. Come on JW I know you got a few good stories to tell. Don't be holdin back on us.
Well, there was there was that one trade bow I was finishing....Had it in the tillering tree and was leaning back on the rope, had it just about at full draw when it blew. I went over backwards when I stumbled on crap stacked on the floor, cracked my head, and got a concussion but was too stubborn/stupid to go to the hospital. Oh, and I have done everything else that has already been listed except throw out yew with too thick of rings or hedge with too thin of rings.
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Ok I have one that ain't been mentioned yet.
The first bow I ever tried to make for someone else I tillered it to 28 inches for safety reasons for the guy I was giving it to. Measured the weight at his draw length of 24" and adjusted it to 30 lbs for him. Everything was great. It shot really nice at my draw length and at his. At this point I put about 200 arrows through it. I hadn't done a thing to the handle because I was having him come out and I was going to carve him a custom grip. The grip turned out great. He shot it about 10 times to see if the weight was right for him. Everything was good when he left. All I had to do was a little sanding and some stain and the finishing touches. So I started working on it the next day. Then I just had to shoot it a few more times because it was such a sweet shooter. About 3 shots in, at 24" I heard a small tic and then it exploded. The top limb flew about 30 feet behind me and landed in the street. I freaked out, at first then calmly picked up the pieces and called my friend. He was very understanding and I felt better when I got off the phone. Then I picked up another bow I was working on, while bracing it the bottom limb cracked. I proceeded breaking it (rawhide backing held) I picked up the short piece and threw it at my privacy fence and it stuck in it. But left me a nice present, a 2" splinter that went all the way through my index finger. STUPID TEMPER TANTRUMS! Patrick
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I've only seen 1 bow to full draw. This whole baby thing makes it hard to spend time in the garage. Once I got mine to full draw a couple of times I took it to show my uncle who is wanting to make one as well. My draw length is much longer than his and my cousins. I let my cousin try and pull it back and he couldn't. He is scrawny. My Granny wanted to try just to be funny. She got it back maybe 3 inches. I got it again and pulled and BOOM!!! The string on the nocks kept the top limb from hitting Granny but it hit my right in the pride. Luckily nothing but my feeling was hurt. Not really sure what my blunder was that broke it but I almost hit my Granny in the face. I would have never lived that down.
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Splicing these two billets together >:( >:(