What bowyer books have you read and what is your opinion of them. If possible, can you compare them to other bowyer books you read? I am new to this hobby and have prepared by age drying billets in a garage for a year. Meanwhile I might start visiting lumber yards for practice staves. The books I'm now reading are the 4 volume series of The Traditional Bowyer's Bible. These books are quite comprehensive. I'll mention the contents of what I've read so far (I've only read 2 of the volumes and am reading a third). Volume one mentions the different types of woods to choose and designs to match the wood density, and introduction of tillering and backing of the bow and why, Volume two mentions board bows, simple composite bows and how to bend wood to make recurves and even making strings and broadheads. I've ordered Volume three and have just started Volume four because I want to make a composite laminated bow to replace my current Bear bows. In volume four, I've read about heat tempering the belly side of a bow to increase poundage and am reading about the making of flight bows. This is obviously a summary and is what I remember off the top of my head. But these books go into detail mentioning the compression and tension of wood so you know why a backing improves a bow's performance. Yet, if you want, you can recreate a bow used by the early Europeans to the Native Americans and to some degree but so far only mentioned, eastern recurve bows.
