Remember when you first started?

[DCM]

I had a cheap recurve archery set like most boys in the 60s I reckon.  Shot off and on w/ a compound until I found the traditional archery renaissance on the internet, I'd guess 12 or so years ago looking for tuning instructions.  John Scifres' early build alongs got me hooked on the idea of building a selfbow.  My early bows sucked heavily, severly, painfully but I was hooked.  I found I enjoyed the process of building, from scouting tree all the way up to the final leather work, more than the finished product and to this day hunt with a glass recurve.  While I still do mostly self and composite, maybe 5 a year on average, after a handful of projects using glass I've learned it ain't as easy as it looks to get the most from modern matierals either.  There's plenty to keep a man busy in this game.

[possum]

DCM, I SO remember those build alongs.   I wish more people did them.  I would do some but time to get out hunting is limited and rare, and I need that to get materials.  So I can understand why more aren't done.  It was those build-a-longs that taught me so much.  It's running into a problem and seeing what is done to correct it (or blow it.  "OK, wrong technique.  check").  OK, I'm gonna sit here and reminisce.   OK, finished

possum

[uwe]

My reincarnation in archery came about 10 years ago. I forged a steelpoint, then I thought: "Arrowhead without shaft? Make an arrow!". You know what happened! "Yes, arrow without bow? Lets make one." No german literature in that time, Douglas Wallentine`s book "Making Indian Bows And Arrows- The Old Way" was discovered in a blackpowdershooting catalogue in US- sorry forgot the name. A friend ordered it with his stuff. Bow too weak. Bow making lessons and then better and better ones going the way with making native craftthings. I started with english longbows and my bowmakerheart was captured by native american bows and still is.

[orcbow]

Since I have been working with wood most of my life, and also interested in archery since a young age, its natural that eventually, the two would meet. And they did when I got a woodworking books catalog in the mail and saw a book by Jim Hamm in there. "what?" I said to my self, "you can make a bow out of wood?" "and it's not a long lost ancient secret?"
The funny thing was I already had a shaving horse, and a draw knife and had been doing lots of old time traditional hand tool woodworking. And to top it off, I lived on the old family farm at the time, and was surrounded by lots of "hedge" trees. The trouble with that was that my father loved to cut 'em down, because they make such get firewood!
Also I dropped out of college, but I  managed to pass one class and I have one credit, in ARCHERY 

[Sidewinder]

For me this is easy as I have been making bows for a year now. My background did not include hunting or working with hand tools or wood or anything that relates to this passion. Heres how it went for me. Sorry if its a little long winded.

I had become aware of a lot of the things going on in the world that could put us back into the stone age ( natural disasters, terrorist attacks, false flag ops, wars and rumors of wars etc..) and I realized that from a primitve standpoint I had zero knowledge and probabley would'nt do that well at providing for my family so I bought the army survival manual. While reading that I had my interest peaked by the survival branch bow. This would have been around Feb of 2007. I decided to go down to the creek bottom and cut a sapling and carve out a bow with my knife. I whitlled on that thing for a week in the evening and never could get it to bend much ( don't know what species it was). Anyway I realized there had to be a better way. I went online and found this site. I also saw guys talking about the TBB and I immeditaley bought all three volumes and started reading all I could get my hands on. About the same time I started reading everything I decided " Well, I might want to go ahead and buy me one and learn to shoot it  so that by the time I learn to make one I'll be ahead of the game". Which I did, I heard about a guy in a town 20miles away that made osage selfbows. I bought a 68" 49# at 28" osage bow that had some charcter to it. That was the origianl "sidewinder" then I had a friend give me Dean Torges book "hunting the osage bow" and decided after reading that , I needed to find and harvest some  osage bow wood so that by the time I learned how to make them I would have some materials. I also was introduced to PP and so now I had two sites to go to. In the mean time I decided after about 6mths of lurking and studying that it was time to try my hand at a hickory board bow, but I didn't have any hand tools so I posted a trade request and traded with Orien on PP for one of the  choice osage staves I had just harvested,(Aug -Sept 07)  then  I emailed Tim Baker and told him what I wanted to do and that I wanted a pyramid design and ask what dmimesions he would suggest. He was very helpful. I located a local cabinet maker and purchased a couple nice hickory boards for $5 each. I took my time and before I knew it ( about a mths start to finish)( Oct-Nov 07) I had "The Virgin Hickory" and she is still shooting to this day, after maybe 2000 arras through her. I have it on loan to an ole primitve shooter I met that is rehabing a shoulder and can't shoot his 55# riight now. ( It lost weight...10-15# with the coming of spring...thats hickory in the kansas humidty) I have 3 shooters  to my credit and have broken I don't know maybe 6 or 8 in the process I quit counting cuz it don't matter. I  have been shooting at least every other day and plenty of 3d shoots this year and have gotten better and better. I am eternally grateful for the fellas that have blazed the trail, for it sure makes it alot easier for those of us that have come along afterwards. The guys I have met in this thing are some of the finest, generous, intelligent and capable people I have ever had the privilesge to know and I am currently in the process of trying to infect some of the cyborg shootin guys at the Ninnescah Bowhunting Club that can't believe my newst osage shooter shoots as well and as quiet as it does. The nice thing about it is I am no longer alone as I have made several friends that have been into bowmaking and knapping a while and I now have a buddy that I meet with regualry to scout/ cut wood and stump shoot etc.... Now if I can just find some where to hunt thats not 50 miles way I will be in tall cotton. I am currently wokring on another 60" osage pyramid that I hope will come in at 57-60#.  I am hopelessly hooked.  It took me 43yrs of life to finally discover this passion. Its something that has gripped me like no other. You know I liken this to a midlife crisis. Some guys divorce thier wives and go get a trophy wife and a hotrod car... I decided to continue to love my wife of 23yrs and carve out a stick and put a string on it and take walk in the woods. I have actually  come to believe that I will make meat with it ( God willin.)  The journey thus far has been great and so have all of you.    Danny

[venisonburger]

My beginnings came believe it or not from a near death experience, about 4 years ago I had my first of 2 bouts with pancreatitis. I spent some time in intensive care and nearly died, I recovered and went home but was directed by my doctor to take the entire summer off due to the heat and my condition which needed some rest to improve. I had seen ads in magazines  "Make bows from boards" and really had an interest in the idea. Somehow I stumbled upon the leatherwall site and did some reading. George Tsoukolas(sp) was the teacher I needed and I bounced alot of questions off him and numerous others on the site. I was fortunate enough that my first bow, a red oak backed with denim, was a success. 72" ntn cherry tips a thick leather handle and about 50#. I ordered the string from ebay since I had not yet begun making them. I was thrilled that I could shoot something that I made myself. I practiced shooting it the remainder of the summer into fall and that year took a small spike horn whitetail with the bow. Later that same season I sat in my tree stand with the bow, and the sun reflected off the belly of it, my heart dropped as I noticed the small cracks that we all know as chrysals. I decided to retire it so it wouldn't die and leave me with only pieces to remember my "first" by. since then, I've made about 30 bows, given away, a few sold, all my friends and there sons and some daughters armed with my new hobby. I've backed with brown grocery bag, denim, birch bark, jute, sinew,silk,rawhide,snakeskin,and bamboo. I can't imagine what life would be like if I couldn't make bows, I have numerous in the works and lots of wood that wants to shoot an arrow. it's almost like each new bow is my first. kinda funny.
VB

[Badger]

   I really enjoyed your stories. We seem to have a lot in common. Steve

[PeteC]

Badger,I started much the same as you described,with only a desire from my early youth to build my own outfit and hunt deer with it.I knew no one that built selfbows,then, in '98,saw a small booklet ,26 pages,by Steve Hulsey,called,"For the first time bowyer".I bought a seasoned stave from him,and my first attempt went very well.After that,I started cutting and seasoning my own wood.It took a while to try anything other than osage,but I now build from several whitewoods as well,but nothing compares to boisd'arc.I've been building self arrows for about 5 years,and it's every bit as rewarding as the bowbuilding.I enjoy building my own equipment,even my own hang- on type tree stands,but my real passion is gettin' to hunt with em.There is nothing like the feeling of taking a deer,(or even a squirrel for that matter),with self made tools. I've rambled on long enough,   God Bless

[JW_Halverson]

7 years ago I had abandoned a wreck of a marriage and was a trainwreck myself.  A work acquaintance asked me if I wanted to finish a bow he had started years ago.  It was a green ash stave he had cut years before and it was wonderfully seasoned.  66" n-t-n, pulled 43 lbs at 26", and had a huge knot below the handle.  Nite after nite of scraping wood and listening to him blather on and on about every subject but what was on my mind was a healing experience.  He's now one of the best friends a man could have and I recently returned the favor by introducing him to building flintlocks.  Now we are both nuts for our seperate crafts and heading further around the bend with no brakes and a brick on the gas pedal...

That first bow developed a crack in the upper (the "perfect") limb when I turned my back and a testosterone-laden training-wheel shooter picked it up and overdrew to his claimed 32" draw.  The pinhead also released from full draw with no arrow on the string, something I don't think is recommended even for their equipment.  The blood running down his wrist was small satisfaction for the grief he caused. 

To this day I shoot a sinew and snakeskin backed osage orange bow that my mentor gave me when my bow failed.  I have built several dozen bows for others, but am content to shoot "Crack Addict" built by him.  I know that some day a bow will emerge from a stave under my hands and I will look at her and say, "I found you, I made you, you're mine."

Thank you all for sharing in this inspirational thread. Makes me wanna make another bow, or 12.

[Gordon]

I was lucky and built my first bow under the watchful eye of master bowyer John Strunk. I still have that hazelnut bow and it's a fine one at that. Bow number two somehow turned into a a shooter but I cringe whenever I look at the tiller. Then I decided that I was going to build a bow out of vine maple and my next 4 attempts ended in failure. I finally made one that shot and it is still holding together - though it is awefully rough by my standards today. I've probably made about 25 bows and it seems like I've made every mistake possible, but something new still goes wrong with each new bow. But the mistakes are getting less and less serious so I think I'm improving. This seems to be a journey that will never end, and I am thankful for that.

[islandpiper]

What a great bunch of stories.   I hope the moderators leave this thread up till the end.    It should be required reading for new members.........they would feel like "family" right away. 

Piper

[shamus]

I started crafting selfbows in 1994. There were no traditional archery sites back then. Heck, the World Wide Web was still crawling out of the primordial ooze at that point. I took a self bow making class, and purchased the Traditional Bowyer's Bible and The Bent Stick, all in the same weekend.

I got into selfbows because I couldn’t afford to buy a traditional bow. I'm not a hunter. I just like archery for its own sake.

I subscribed to Primitive Archer in the first year and I'm pleasantly surprised to see it going strong.

I remember when there was just one traditional site in 1997. 

Today, I'm glad to see there are more sites for selfbowyers, and there are some fine craftsmen/women out there. Maybe one day I'll consider myself one of them!  I'm still making bows. I write the occasional article, and post about selfbows on my webpage.

[Bowbound]

Yikes!

I started about 5 years ago. Aged 9! By myself i quickly figured some woods were better than others. Early on, with no help, i used only a penknife to remove the bark. Often i would leave the cambium on then i would flatten the belly and make the tips slightly thinner. My concept of tillering was minimal but my bows certainly started to improve. I would often notice that after a summer of no use a bow would be much better so learnt dry wood was also good. I also realised some woods wouldn't bend how i wanted them to bend, especially the ones i made from pine. I started to use hazel and can also remember a particularly good bow from holly. I liked these tension strong woods because they didn't break. My arrows were often just straight stickes with a nock and a nail in the front. Fletching was to me very hard but the arrows flew well anyway. Soon i made bows that were breaching the gardens limits. These would be stronger and dryer bows with slightly better tiller.I can still remember jumping over fences into other peoples gardens to fetch an arrow. I would guess these bows would shoot 100metres at best judging on the lengh of my garden. Pretty impressive in my opinion.

Then i got tbb and found these sites. Now my arrows are fletched and bows have better tiller. Surprisingly i broke few bows until i got tbb now more of my bows break.

Josh

I forgot... I also used to put a nail in to my bows as a arrow rest. Apart from the fact it was not very aesthetically pleasing it worked suprisingly well!

[Boro]

Sure I can remember as I am still starting  . Well, I did made one 6-7 years ago from green ash, but then I did not know the concept of tiller, draw weight or draw length or anything. So I don't count it.
So far I had seven attempts, one working. I think the tiller on that one is a bit off, but I called it finished and gave it away. At the moment waiting for a new stave to dry out.

I like this thread, as Islandpiper said, I do feel more cozy 

Boris

[George Tsoukalas]

venisonburger, such a great story. All great stories. Thanks for sharing. Jawge