2025 Junior Bow Trade

[stuckinthemud]

Ok, so I’m still waiting for a couple of specs to be sent to me, but in the meantime, let’s see your staves/ get some chat started.  We’ve all done this before, so same rules as last year.  Please post regular updates, my stress levels go through the roof if people disappear….Everyone ships at the same time, addresses will be sent out when everyone is ready.  We are really relaxed about shipping, when everyone is happy, that is when we ship- could be June, could be November, no pressure, everyone has fun.  Having fun is the important bit.  The more people post, the more everyone viewing gets to learn - did you see how many viewed last year? It was a LOT.  It is a great opportunity for even experienced builders to try something new and get comments from the PA community, so please be vocal everyone.  Anyone with technical issues can email stuff to me and I will post on their behalf. 

[paulc]

I pulled a piece of hackberry I've had in rafters for years...kinda sketchy but might work. I'm thinking I'll need to back it w something(rawhide) as insurance. Stave is currently 66" tip to tip, a tad under 1.5" wide.

Any suggestions on finding rawhide? Done only a little reading and sounds like dog chews are out.

Paul

[Aaron1726]

Paul I got some from 3 rivers a couple years ago and it was pretty good stuff.  I've read that theirs is goat rawhide.  It was pretty thin especially compared to what you get from the dog chews.

Not sure if other places carry goat rawhide too, but might be something to google search and see.

[Mafort]

Thinking I’m gunna try my first bout with yew wood. Been building bows for 15 years but I’ve never touched yew wood. Any help?

[stuckinthemud]

How thick is the sapwood, and, how much character is there?

[paulc]

I've got rawhide on the way from 3 Rivers...Paul

[Del the cat]

Thinking I’m gunna try my first bout with yew wood. Been building bows for 15 years but I’ve never touched yew wood. Any help?

Plenty of Yew build play lists and info about sapwood on my Youtube channel:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjX-5-DcKKs
Del

[Muskyman]

I’ve gotten it from Clay Hayes several times and was happy with it. It’s really thin, almost translucent and about 36 inches long. 2 pieces per order.
Here’s his website if you want to take a look.
https://www.twistedstave.com/traditional-archery-supplies/rawhide-bow-backing-strips/

[Wallski]

Ok, here’s my stave, and one extra just in case something goes wrong.

[Aaron1726]

I've got a few options for staves, was going to wait until I know what I'm targeting for the specs before picking one.

Musky, that's good to know about the stuff from Clay Hayes, I may end up with rawhide on mine too, so might get some from him as well as the 3 rivers stuff so I'll have options.

[paulc]

first two pics are the hackberry I hope has a bow in it...years ago I decided I was too aggressive removing a know on the side of the stave so I put it aside rather than kindling it.  Now I think maybe there is still enough there to work with.  It is maybe too narrow based on what I have read but I'll leave it as long as possible maybe it'll be alright.  The pic with 4 "staves" is what is left of the river birch I got years ago when the city was taking out a diseased tree.  I suspect my effort to get disease damage free wood was not successful but not ready to give up completely.  Two on the left have the most potential, that one of the right inside will go straight to the firewood pile...

Whatever I do will likely have rawhide on the back as insurance.  I've never worked with rawhide so I am excited about that.  If the bow turns out to be a dog, or blows up after I've put on the rawhide can I remove the rawhide and use it on another stave?  Or would rawhide likely be use once and throw out..?

thanks a bunch as always!  Paul

[Aaron1726]

Paul, I suppose if you used hide glue for the rawhide, then you could remove it.  But once it's trimmed to the size of the limb, it might be tricky to re-use unless the first bow had wider and longer limbs than the second one. Or you are really good at matching things up.

Only time I've done rawhide I used tite bond so removal wasn't an option.