Bow Log Book?

[Eric Krewson]

Here is a neat example; I made a bow out of a splintered stave to see if I could, adding parts in places that no parts should hold up, I bamboo backed it to help hold the parts together. The bow shot fine, I called it my Frankenstein bow.

I was helping a friend buy some equipment for his Cowboy Action rig and needed $80 more dollars. I offered this bow on line for the needed $80 telling the buyer full well what he was buying and I that I wouldn't guarantee it. Off it went to Connecticut, the buyer loved the bow.

Years later a guy called me about a bow he found in an archery shop in Chattanooga with my name on it, he wanted to know about the bow. A quick check of the stats in my log book and I determined out it was my Frankenstein bow. I asked him to send me a picture to verify this, the glue line was visible in his picture.

Here is a before and after picture;

[Eric Krewson]

I started the bow with this in the handle section, I dished out the bad wood and glued in new wood. This bow was another of my hair brained experiments just to see how things would come out and what I could pull off and get away with it.

[Hawkdancer]

Sounds like everything went well with that build!  Nice to see the bow still shooting!
Hawkdancer

[willie]

since almost every bow is trying something new, I wished I had kept more notes about what I hoped to learn with a particular bow, and how it worked out in that particular regard.

[silent sniper]

I keep detailed records of every laminate bow I build. Specs including lamination thicknesses, taper rates, final limb thickness/widths exc...  I also keep records of the amount that set/reflex the bow had, as well as the arrow speed the bow achieved once broken in. Finally I add notes of what could be improved on the for next bow.
  I have been keeping these notes for 3 years now and I am constantly looking back on old builds to compare them to projects I am working on now. These record books have been really valuable to me.
Cheers,
Taylor

[bradsmith2010]

two of the first pages from 1997.... this bow shot well and I learned about heat box and fixing a splinter,, and the design was a bit narrow,, or not long enough for long term heavy tournament use,,

[scp]

I saw a rather comprehensive form blank (probably by Tim Baker) in one of the Bowyer's Bible. I made several notes following the form, then just gave up. Not easy to keep up for a hobbyist. As I never sell or give away my bows, all specs are still with me. I will get around to cataloging them when I cannot make bows anymore. Now I just keep stave drying notes. I might start to use a simplified log book as I tinker with some of my around 50 bows to see if I can make any of them shoot better than 170 FPS. It would be interesting to have the before and after specs.