Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: TESSERACT85 on October 01, 2008, 11:45:06 am
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Hello all,
I am new to the art of Bowyers and would ike to get started. I do not know what I need to create beautiful bows.
What is the tooling required to create these masterpieces?
What is some recommended literature?
What are some good starter bows to make and use?
What are some recommended woods to use?
Basically, where should a beginner start?
My background is in metal working and I have all of the tools you can imagine for creating anything metal related. I recently found a love for wood. Its so smooth, warm, soft and forgiving. I want to become as good with wood as I am with metal.
I thank anyone in advance for their information. Have a great day!
JR
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Welcome aboard, JR. I would get started by reading through this site, especially the threads on the bows forum as there is scads of good info on here. I would recommend getting a good book or two, also. A couple that I thinkl are great introductions are The Traditional Bowyer's Bible vol. 1 and Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans by Jim Hamm. You can get both of them from the Horsefeathers Ranch link at the top of this page. Reading through these and the threads on here will give you a good base of information to start from (from cutting/seasoning wood to building different styles of bows), and feel free to ask questions on here. And if you don't have a subscription to Primitive Archer magazine, it's well worth getting, too-always full of good info and tips. Some good woods in your area are hickory, black locust, elm, red mulberry, and white ash, among many others. You may have some osage if you look around.
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Welcome JR. You find all you need here,try some of the build alongs,they are great
for someone starting out.Also the books Hillbilly mentioned are great.
Pappy
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TESSER,
How well do you know your trees, so as to be able to identify the woods that Hillbilly mentioned above? If you aren't sure, post a pic of some green leaves and maybe even the tree itself. We'll make sure you aren't going to cut something down thinking it's something else and possibly waste your time and effort ;)
~~Papa Matt
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In your part of the country, you should have mostly the same stuff I have here in Indiana. Definately Osage Orange if you have any, also Black Locust, Pignut Hickory or any Hickory, Elm, White Ash, (NOT GREEN ASH), Black Cherry. To me, these are all good. I would season any piece of wood at least 3 months before working it into bow form. The longer the better. It's easiest and quickest to split out your staves and seal the ends, so that it will dry quicker, being a smaller piece of wood. But still some woods need to season a year or more for optimal performance as a bow. What are you planning to cut? Pick something out and let us know, we'll help you from there.
~~Papa Matt
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Welcome to P.A. You done found the right place.There are methods of drying out staves quicker in the books and on this site.(depending on the species of tree) No need to go without something to work on. Frank
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Here's what I would do:
Find a nice, straight Elm or White Ash, about 4 inches in diameter, and that has a nice section in it 6-7 feet long if you are looking to build an ELB (English long bow). Try to split it so that both haves come out straight left to right. Seal both ends with wood glue, or some other kind of sealant, and set them in a warm DRY spot to season at least a couple weeks, or longer if you can hold out. What do you drive? If you could set them in your vehicle, that's a nice way to dry them out. But be sure to seal the ends, because trying to dry them faster than natural can cause them to split.
Let me say it like this. You could put some effort into it and have a sappling stave cut and dry in a week or two. But to me, seasoning wood is as much abouit time as it is humidity; others would surely disagree. But if you cut a 4 inch sappling, split it like I said, seal both ends of each half, you should be able to dry it out enough in a couple weeks using White Ash or Elm.
~~Papa Matt
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Here's a link from a member that may be very useful to you. http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/
Welcome aboard JR
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That sounds like a good plan to me.
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never used one from 3 rivers,cant imagine that ther would be anything wrong with them.
my first bow was an ELB kit that i purchased from RUDDERBOWS ARCHERY,i have purchased severl kits from jim,as wood staves are hard for me to aquire as i live
in a very urban area. as time goes by for you you will learn to collect things that are of value for trading others on here to get staves too. thats pretty much what i do now. however i will still but the occasional kit.
so go for it buy a kit, it will help teach proper tillering and you daont have to wait for the wood to season.
peace,
tim
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Welcome, glad you found the site. I'm sure somebody has some dry staves on this side that would be willing to trade for a green one. You could talk me into it , probally. A good bowyer and one of the best arrowsmiths in the country is in Lansing, WVa. Art Butner. Comes on here as Archer1, drop him a PM.
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Welcome. My site may help you. Jawge
http://georgeandjoni.home.comcast.net/~georgeandjoni/