Dumbest thing you’ve ever done while building a bow

[leonwood]

I don't do center shot bows and cutout arrow passes that often but when I just started bow building I tried it a few times... You guessed it, cut it on the wrong side!
Like Pat I did bend a recurve the wrong direction once, noticed it after bending so stuck it back in the cooking pot and bend it a few minutes later without harm done, made me sweat though!

[PaSteve]

I'm still very much a novice but I would have to say daydreaming while rasping the belly. I wound up with an unsightly hinge or a 20# bow... I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but hopefully I'll remember to stay fully focused or give it a rest and come back to it later.

[Eric Krewson]

Where to start..... I guess the one that still haunts me the most is when I cut the most perfect osage on the planet, perfect rings, clear straight wood with no knots or pins and stripped the bark but not the sapwood. I painted the backs with wood glue and put the staves in a closed up outside garage in the summer. When I looked at the staves a month later they had checks from back to belly I could have dropped a dime in.

I have probably ruined 30 or more osage staves by cutting more trees than I could process and leaving the wood out in the weather, it turned into a pile of badly checked twisted snakes.

I have been carried away daydreaming a bunch of times and let my bandsaw go where it wasn't supposed to go, more ruined staves.

[Badger]

  Eric, I have also made mistakes on the bandsaw many time roughing out staves. I quit using it on staves. One moment of mental lapse can cost me $100.00 in a flash. I went back to just using a draw knife and have learned to really appreciate the exercise.

[Bayou Ben]

Even on my cheap 9" bandsaw, I have made a few $50 mental lapses.

I bet you are getting an exercise Steve.  I still can't believe how you mentioned that at one time you were pumping out 1 bow a day.  That's crazy! 

[Badger]

Ben, I am no where near that anymore Ben, I slowed way down mainly because of the cost of staves. If I had free or low cost access to staves I would likely grind away about 8 hours a day. LOL. I keep developing methods to slow the process down instead of speed up so I can stay busy but use less wood.

[BowEd]

Most mistakes that happen to me a lot of times is coming short in the patience game.Making multiple bows at a time helps curb that a bit.

[gifford]

Well, let's see now...One of my very early mistakes was in filing my string nocks on a Osage ELB I had made. Cut one, flipped the bow over and filed a perfect string nock that was the wrong way. Sign. Filed the string nock going the right way so I've got a nice X on bow. Always reminding me, double check.


Got access to a property that was being developed into a housing tract. Cut some osage and other hardwoods from the push pile. Had to rent a chain saw. Split them all, and then read that you can use a froe to get belly splits. Coool I gets twice as many staves. Well, not the way it worked out the first few times. Sigh.  I learned how to do it the hard way, like most of my life lessons.

[Selfbowman]

Done this atleast twice. Not paying close attention and during rough out on band saw cut
Passed the fade to center of bow. And yes on a perfect stave it kinda makes you need to pee!
Arvin

[Mo_coon-catcher]

My biggest mistakes come from the drawknife. Thinking I’ll just shave off a little bit more before scraping or rasping the area, but wind up popping a big ol splinter with the knife. Taking the stave from about 70-80# to start with down to about 30 by the time I even it out.

Kyle

[mullet]

For some stupid reason I put a knee into the back of a glue up and tried to see if it would bend some more in reflex. Yep! separated the limb in the top of the curve. Also screwed up some staves with the ban saw. Now I mostly rough them out with a hatchet.

[Badger]

My biggest mistakes come from the drawknife. Thinking I’ll just shave off a little bit more before scraping or rasping the area, but wind up popping a big ol splinter with the knife. Taking the stave from about 70-80# to start with down to about 30 by the time I even it out.

Kyle

   I have done the same thing, now I put them on the long string at about 100#. I used to get them so close I would just brace them and even them up a little. But cutting it that close has cost me a few bows coming in too light.

[Hawkdancer]

Hee!  Hee! - decided to make a self bow!  Still trying to get to brace height and keep weight range!  This thread needs to be a sticky so we don't make the same misteak twice.  Other than trying to brace too soon, I think I haven't screwed up too badly!  Going to Turkey Camp doesn't count, I hope.  Probably really screw up the second one, 'cause I think I know what I'm doing!
Hawkdancer

[dylanholderman]

i'm sure that i have done dumber things in the past but the one coming to mind right now is not moving the center mark on a bendy handle bow after shortening the top limb, made tiller a little tricky until i realized what i'd done

[DuBois]

I got frustrated with a HHB that had a hinge in outer 3rd. I decided I would just pull that *7*&$3%@ until it broke. It did break and when it did the tip hit me in the gut so hard it left a ring loop imprinted skin break and felt like what I would imagine a shotgun bean bag would.

I wish I had rubbed a little dye or ash into it and kept it as a tattoo.

Of course that probably isn't the dumbest thing. Kinda hard to pick just one.