Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Russ on February 02, 2020, 02:28:08 pm
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So i was just wondering, how many staves do you keep on standby??
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I have about 40 in the shop & about 4 inside seasoning 50% RH ,I usauly let them season a couple years before working them ! I live in a area that's pretty easy to get staves of different species !
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I’m always on the hunt. I only have about 9 tree staves on the rack and about 20 board staves
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That's a good question. I'll go take a rough count. I have bow wood all over the place out there.
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I think I have 20 or thirty
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From what I can see, a conservative estimate looks like 115 selfbow staves, 165 bows worth of slats/lumber, 11 billet length yew logs, 4 big planks of clear maple and walnut 2"+ thick, and enough wood for 60 or more glassbow lams... maybe a lot more than that. Hard to see what all is in there without tearing everything apart. 95% of it is kept in the shop where the r.h. is controlled year round. Much osage and yew, but lots of other kinds too. These are my retirement projects ;D
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WTFrick!!!!! I have 2 staves and 4 billets! (lol) Im laughing my heart out rn!!
I need to get myself a chainsaw.. )W( I have hackberry trees up the wazoo around here. there not hard to spot at all. There should be lots of osage around here too but I just dont see them!!!! )-w( :'(
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These are my retirement projects ;D
You gotta retire soon or else your not gonna get done!!!
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I probably have about 30 staves and about 8 sets of billets. I probably should get a chain saw out this summer. I am getting a little low!
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I've got four blanks in the house. Twelve staves in the shed and just cut 18 more logs with my buddy yellowstave. I took 13 of those logs because my trailer was bigger. Lol. That brought my log count to 21 in the yard. Some of which are over two feet thick.
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Haha, yikes. A few years ago I had over 300 staves, mostly yew. Now I have maybe around 200, but my closet inside is usually loaded up with blanks and bows in the works as well. It’s pretty loaded right now...
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All osage too!
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Wow, you guys live in the land of plenty!
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Russell,
Us new guys are just learning to recognize "bows in the raw"' regaedless of age! I have about 6 or so staves ready to work and stabilized to local rh. Some primo, some real challenges! Got one challenge to long string, but it looks like it will need to be backed to survive. Got to make some antelope or deer rawhide to proceed. Plan to rough out a hickory stave soon.
Hawkdancer
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Damn that Osage looks nice. Jealous
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I have beeween 40 and 50 ash staves. All are stored inside. Considering how much free time I have, I'm set for 30 years of ash bows.
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Not counting lumber and billets. Somewhere between 350-400 staves. 97%yew and 2% vinemaple the rest is misc. woods and a dozen or so Osage
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Right now 10 but I'm hoping to add to that real soon.
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I don't know exactly, I am guessing 25 osage staves, some dogwood, hickory, a premo yew stave, 25 or 30 osage billets, mostly mismatched and 7 or 8 osage and hickory bow blanks.
THis count is down from a couple of hundred staves that I have been working through for the last 25 years. I don't plan on ever cutting osage again, I am too old and have wood I will never use.
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I’m not really sure, but I’d say I have about 200 good staves and another 30-50 highly characters and iffy staves. Right now it’s about 40% hackberry, 30% hickory, about 20% black locust, then a random assortment of ERC, persimmon, Osage and black cherry. I need to get a couple more trees oof black locust as it’s my favorite to work with. But in the mean time, I have lots of dried hickory to play with.
Kyle
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I have another pic of a bigger trailer but I cant shrink it small enough to fit on here lol
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This don't do it justice lol
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Just a few hickory blanks, couple black locust staves and one lone osage blank.
There was a time that I had a lot more but never as many as some have now.
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Did anyone else think the extension cord(?) in Eric's second photo was a nice, reflexed, wiggly yellow osage stave? This thread is making me see things...
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I have about 50. A few Yellow birch, a few ash, lots of HHB, few maple, a dozen Osage, half a dozen yew, 3 apple, 4 hawthorn, one black locust, 3 or 4 red cedar, 3 Rocky Mountain juniper, 3 or 4 buckthorn, 2 or 3 elm, 3 mulberry, and a rattan stave that could make 2. This has been a good exercise for me. Been thinking about what to build next.
I really need to rough some more out to condense the pile.
I have a bandsaw and a joiner but I generally like to build them with all hand tools. Much more enjoyable. The wife says no more bow wood.
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I have 5 white oak and a partially tillered bow.
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I really don’t know. Probably about 50 to 70 right now that are cured. Another dozen in different stages. It always seems like a lot till I get some time and the bug bites me. Then I can go through a heck of a pile of wood. I got enough other projects going that I haven’t really gotten started on bows this winter yet. I kinda like it that way. Variety is the spice of life and it seems to keep me motivated and stop me from burning out.
Deerhunter. I’d suggest harvesting a few logs and processing them. Then harvest a few more and process them. As much work as a chainsaw can be. It’s the easy part. Lots and lots of work after that yet. If you harvest to many at once, you will be overwhelmed and very likely not up to the task again.
I would recommend starting to accumulate a inventory though. I remember the first year I sawed and processed what I thought would last me years. I couldn’t believe how fast I went through it. I go in streaks though.
Bjrogg
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You know, if some of you feel like you have too many, some of us in more wood-poor parts of the country would be happy to help you out. . .
I tend to have about 10 staves on hand at any time, which is enough--I can only work one at a time, and I usually only manage 3-4 bows a year.
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I peaked out at 15 bows a year, old age and osage dust allergies have slowed me down to almost nothing.
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Haven't cut any bow wood in a few years so my supply is starting to go down. Probably 50~100 staves, including billets, and enough board stock for another 50 bows
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I'm still on a learning curve myself. I make probably 50 or more a year for the last five years. I'm looking at how much more stress a clean backed bow can handle vs a character bow. I love watching them come to life but I cant help to smile when they blow. It's all a learning process for me still. I cant get enough of that yeller gold!
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I have about 35 Osage staves and one hickory. Probably get about 15 more at Ojam .
Arvin
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I have about 30 character staves, about 4 good staves and enough billets for another 3 or 4 bows, a mix of apple, hawthorn, laurel, scotch broom, hazel and just a couple of yew staves but I only build a couple of bows a year so at this rate I have enough to keep me going for longer than I have left......
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Man, I’ve got 1 mismatched pair of Osage billets. Now I feel like the kid at lunch with a pb&j and white milk while everyone else has pizza lunchables and Capri sun...
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Tracker I'd be happy to send you a stave. You pay shipping of course and its green. But you can blank it out seal the back and be shooting it by may if you wanted. Even sooner if you have a wood stove
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1 stave working. 1 at floor tiller. = noob.
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Bubbabowyer I’m shooting you a message!
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1 stave working. 1 at floor tiller. = noob.
+ one primitive archer forum = 1 future Master
Now thats a recipie even Gordon Ramsey would like! -C-
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1 stave working. 1 at floor tiller. = noob.
+ one primitive archer forum = 1 future Master
Now thats a recipie even Gordon Ramsey would like! -C-
Hahahahahaha
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...as many as I can run out of the woods with!
There's nothing more satisfying than having a nice stack of prepared staves & roughed-in bow blanks, drying and seasoning; and just waiting for you to choose one of your liking. But you can't rest on that - You gotta remember to cut more wood, so it's seasoned by the time you need it. And the truth is, you're always a year behind on your bow wood acquisitions, because it's gotta dry & season, before you can use it. So when I see that I'm down to the last couple of staves, and I know I didn't harvest any wood in the last year, I know I'm REALLY behind. There's been plenty of times when I was really itching to make a bow, or a specific style bow, and I simply didn't have a decent stave that would fit the bill. And I refuse to pay for bow wood!
As much as I enjoy making bows, I think I get more excited these days, when I come home with a good haul of logs & sapling poles, or discover a stand of trees with some new bow wood species I've been wanting try.
–John
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Barn full.
Shawn~
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Finaly split all Wood and sorted It out in order of when i want to use It. I did count all different species.
Its a total of 42 staves.
13 yew (one is a heartwood split)
2rose Wood
1 flowering plum ( not sure)
2 black locust staves (have half of a big log waiting outside)
12 different species of elm, mostly saplings
2 elderberry
2 5 inch hazel
2 hawthorn branches
1 unknown stick , possible plum or bird Cherry
2 fruit branches (i think It was apple)
1 dogwood wich is at floor tiller
1 birdcherry stick to try out
1 wacky bumpy purple plum ( but still chasing a better stave)
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Can I just say I kinda hate you guys with the bow wood locally. I am originally from TN and we had Osage, locust, hickory and a few more to beat the band! Cut truckloads of it a few times a year. Since I've been out in Montana I have to import the stuff like treasure! I have a few staves now but there is no such number as too many. I'd love to have 50 in the shop just waiting for work.
Steel I have everywhere! Knives and tools all over the place and a hot forge to make more...just no bow wood in the whole state. HA!
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Can I just say I kinda hate you guys with the bow wood locally...Since I've been out in Montana I have to import the stuff like treasure!...just no bow wood in the whole state. HA!
Yeah, what he said! I think there's a reason the NA tribes in this area all sinew backed their bows. Some of you guys don't know how lucky you are! )W( Enjoy it!
T
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I've got one nearly finished bow (hickory) and an osage stave waiting. But for a new guy like me that will last a while. The hickory one is my first bow, and it's taken about a year of off and on work. After everything I've learned on it, I'm hoping #2 will go a bit faster.
I live overseas where finding bow wood is a bit hard. I plan to be at my family's place in KY this spring sometime and am hoping to cut more hickory or osage. Any tips on finding osage trees would be appreciated!
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Once you can recognize an osage tree you can spot one from a distance, I can spot one on a fence line 1/4 mile away across a field as I drive down a hwy. Osage likes bottomland better than hilltops, in the bottom land they tend to be several in a group, it might be one acre or 40 populated with them.
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Driving a secondary road in the northwest corner of Kentucky I saw a long fence row that looked to be all huge Osage trees. I would not want to tackle those giants with anything less than an equally huge hydraulic splitter. Those trees would be better for a sawmill than or making bow staves.
Watch upcoming Primitive Archer magazine issues for a different approach to the stave supply. Don't know when the article is scheduled.