Hello, my name is Morgan. I'm from Oklahoma.
I've been reading posts here for quite some time and just getting around to registering.
I'd like to thank everyone in this community that takes the time to help newcomers such as myself, it is much needed, and very encouraging. I have scratched out a handful of bows, a couple from boards and couple from staves, and have broke a few too. Most the staves that I have cut have had grub damage, or twisted badly when splitting. I just cut some hackberry a few days ago though that I think is going to make me 10 or 12 nice staves to work on and about 6 not so nice.
my latest attempt at making a bow was from a 2 1/2" hickory sapling 55" long. I made a stiff handled bow poorly tillered to 47# @ 27". Each limb has twist in opposite direction and I had some problems tillering where some humps on the back are that resulted in hinges. But I guess it's a bow. Started with 1 1/2" of natural reflex, finished with the same amount of follow after 100 shots or so. I am not proud of this bow for what it is, but I really didn't think it would ever push an arrow, so I guess ugly success is still success. Still have finishing work on it.