Getting into the "tillering mindset"...

[twisted hickory]

Nice to hear I am not alone.
I think the trick is to have multiple bits of timber at different stages.

Splitting and rouging out when you need to just smack something. Heat treating when you have not the energy to swing a tool. Cutting nocks when you have the concentration but not the muscles.

I fall in and out with all of the bows I make as they progress or fail. Just got to keep going and learning.

+1

[bubby]

a long time ago PatB told me to never work on a bow if your in a bad mood, great advice, bub

[DavidV]

Wow, I've felt exactly the same recently. Also think I'm a little attention deficit... which probably contributes to it a lot. The solution for me anyways is to have 6 or 7 blanks in various stages of completion.

[Don Case]

Maybe now is the time to go crashing around the bush looking for future bows. Take an axe. Beat on a tree. Maybe go hunting and kill something.

[dbb]

Nice to hear I am not alone.
I think the trick is to have multiple bits of timber at different stages.

Splitting and rouging out when you need to just smack something. Heat treating when you have not the energy to swing a tool. Cutting nocks when you have the concentration but not the muscles.

I fall in and out with all of the bows I make as they progress or fail. Just got to keep going and learning.

I do that myself..problem is when the "mindset"dont show up for a while i have a bunch of projekts waiting for tillering.....more stress 

[Dances with squirrels]

That probably exxplains why I'll have 10 bows going but not feel right about tillering them, then when the time feels right, I'll finish them all together in short order.

[randman]

I spend all day (and nights sometimes) workin at a computer which can be deadly - sittin all day - so I take breaks away from it to stand up and that's when I get to fool with my pile of roughed out bows......never know which one will inspire me to pick it up and work on it a bit......eventually one by one they'll come off the other end of the finish line....I'm gettin to the point where I resent the stuff (no matter how important) that keeps me from workin on bows....would that be the definition an addiction or an obsession?   

[rossfactor]

I make myself a cup of tea before a tiller. Kind of my ritual. Slows me down, I focus in, and everything is all right.

Gabe

[wood_bandit99]

I end up getting to caught up in quantity and not so much quality. I have to think it is something I hate, somebody, and imagine I'm rasping their face I actually had a dream I was beating someone with a stave. You might want to take me to a mental hospital

[JonW]

I have to get into the "finishing" mindset. I love roughing out and tillering bows. I may have six to eight going at once. When it comes time to make 'em Purdy I lose interest and start roughing and tillering all over again.

[hedgeapple]

I love tillering.  That's when a piece of wood is transformed from a stick to a bow. But, like the rest of you sometimes I "want" to tiller a bow, but the mental faculties are just not there, usually because I'm tired and drained.  But, I want to be in the shop working.  So, I just go out there and piddle around.  I might tidy up the place or work on some less mind tasking other projects.  About half the time doing so will revive me and a stave ends up in a vice.  Once little yellow curls start falling to the floor, I'm usually good to go.  Other times I just have to walk away.

I think aspiring to be a bowyer, is journey of learning about ones self. The wood teaches us more than how to bend it so it will put an arrow in flight.  We learn patience, perseverance, disappointment and pride.  We also learn our limits.  When we,re physically and mentally DONE we learn to call it a day.

[Del the cat]

...

I think aspiring to be a bowyer, is journey of learning about ones self. The wood teaches us more than how to bend it so it will put an arrow in flight.  We learn patience, perseverance, disappointment and pride.  We also learn our limits.  When we,re physically and mentally DONE we learn to call it a day.
...

You nailed it there Hedgedude.
I might even borrow that if I may?
Del

[beetlebailey1977]

i have not made many bows by any standard....but I do have to get the correct mindset to do it.  I also have to really feel like it.....can't go at it half into it.  I usually like to take my time and be in no rush.

[crooketarrow]

   First off I'm slower than a rock followering even though I work bows just about everyday. I enjoy what I'm doing. I don't try to hurry though it.
 
  One thing that comes with a little age. You learn to slow down what ever your doing.

  I use'lly have a couple 3, bows at different stages at any given time.

  When I start tillering a bow I work on it on differnt (days) steps. When I come back come the next day and look it over, I'll see stiff spots or other things I would'nt have seen if I'd hurryed and (finished) tillered the bow straight through at one setting.
 
  With a tillering tree with a scale. I can hide desired weight spot on. So I'll also set the draw weight  needed 2, 3 pounds over what I need. So when I'm finished tillering the lenth I need. This will also alow me to (sand) fine toon the tillering.

   But if I don't have my heart and mine into it. Idon't even get one off the racks. I have other little hobbies I'll work on.
 
   THERE'S NOT MUCH I CAN ADD TO HEDGES POST. Other than I started my journey almost 22 years ago.  It seams I just got to the first water hole. I hope the finish is still along ways away.

  My old friend CROOKETARROW told me once.
  Building bows not that hard.
  IT'S JUST WHAT I DO. When I go in front of the great spirt. He'll look down on me fondy for doing it.
 

[H Rhodes]

I have to get into the "finishing" mindset. I love roughing out and tillering bows. I may have six to eight going at once. When it comes time to make 'em Purdy I lose interest and start roughing and tillering all over again.

Me too!