Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Kidder on December 09, 2020, 07:16:22 pm
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Thought I’d open what is hopefully a fun discussion with no name calling! What is everybody’s favorite and least favorite aspects of bow building?
My favorite is finish details - tip overlays, inlays, handle wraps (ooh I love handle wraps) but also shaping grips and risers.
My least favorite by far is establishing the thickness profile leading up to floor tillering. Ugh.
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I think that the first time a bow is brassed at 6-7 inches is quite extatic. After that, things go fast and first arrows are launched a couple of hours later.
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For me it's finding a perfect tree. Splitting or cutting it up successfully the way I envision it working best is next.
My least favorite part is deciding when a bow is done.
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Finishing and shooting in a finished bow I'm happy with (which are very rare :)) are my favorite parts. Seeing any project come together is always exiting. Finding and working good wood is also great.
Least favorite part is right after floor tiller when I have to buckle down and take off just the right micro-shavings to get the perfect taper to avoid frets. Dealing with problems with few answers, like frets, isn't fun. Then there is the (--) every once in a great while.
P.s. I dislike heat tempering, but I like the final effect. I could say the same about making strings.
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My favorite is that I've yet to build a successful bow, so everything's ahead of me, everything's a learning experience, everything's still to be figured out.
Least favorite? Same thing.
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Don't know if this qualifies but my favorite part of building a bow is when the person that receives it is just crazy about shooting it and just can't get enough of it. Had this happen recently and loved it. Most folks show lots of appreciation but this fellow is still just in love with it.
My least favorite part is building arrows for said bow. Just kinda boring compared to bow building.
I have had my share of problems learning to bend curves but when it comes together perfectly, thats the part I like. Don't know if its the relief or finished curve but I really enjoy that when it works out. I have enough short blanks from bending gone wrong to last a while.
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Keeping my hands ,and mind occupied is my favorite part. My least favorite part is 12 man hours in ,and the bow breaks on the tillering tree, or worse yet a bow letting go at full draw, and causing bodily damage. Both have happened to me along the way more than I would like to admit. It happens much less now after gaining better than 10 years of experience. Great hobby.
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This is really a good question and complicated. My favorite part is refining the tiller the last 8" or so. Every 1" increment has a special meaning to me. The further I go the more meaning they have. The struggle to detect the very first sign of set is intense. When I inevitably find it I have to decide what to do. I make a good decision or what turns out to be a bad decision. Either way I enjoy the process. If one seems mediocre it just gets thrown in the stack if I like it I go a little further with the finish.
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My favorite part is roughing the stave in. Especially green hickory. I’ll work it down to floor tiller with an axe. Building something with an axe is something I’ve always enjoyed.
Least favorite is when I’m nearly done tillering and I get a hinge because I got in a hurry.
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I was literally thinking about this yesterday. My favorite stage of bow building is chasing the back ring. It's oddly satisfying to me. I also love looking at a stave and visualizing the bow within, and carving and filing it down to the desired front profile. Oddly, I don't enjoy drawing the lines for the profile, but I like following them to layout the bow.
My least favorite part of bow making is when I break one haha. I also hate making strings, but each bow gets a new string made for it for a good custom fit. As said before by at least one other, I find making arrows boring.
I also appreciate that each bow teaches me something, even if it breaks. It can only serve to make me a better bowyer. I'm enjoying reading about everyone else's favorite and least favorite part, thanks for asking and thanks everyone else for sharing.
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I make bows for physical exercise. I enjoy making bow blanks almost but not quite to the floor tillering stage, much more than actually making shootable bows. Still I am too lazy and impatient to use a hatchet, so I use a band saw, while hating it for making so much dust and noise. I hate sanding and finishing, so I just don't do them. I enjoy shooting the unfinished bows thinking about what I can do to make them better. I love possibilities more than actuality. So silly of me. Still I do have a couple of dozen shootable unfinished bows. Go figure.
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My favourite bit is when it explodes on the tiller... ;D :o
err, no, sorry, that's my least favourite bit ::)
Del
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The trick is to enjoy everything :) It's a journey....without an end :)
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My favorite part is the almost magical moment when a chunk of wood that has been defying doing any bending on the tillering tree all of a sudden starts to show life. All of a sudden that heavy chunk of wood that I have been working with starts to almost vibrate in the hand with repressed power. Its that moment that a bow passes from "bow blank" to "bow".
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I'm having a difficult time thinking of something I don't like about it.
I enjoy tillering. I enjoy making them pleasing to the eye with dyes and a fine finish. I enjoy all the woodworking aspects. But my favorite part is when the freshly finished bow balances in hand, balances throughout the draw, and that first shot reveals balance and harmony in action. A bow's essence. My favorite part of bow making is when that all comes together.
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I really like finding a straight trunked tree and cutting it down, removing the bark and splitting it into staves. Then I really like taking one of those staves and bringing it down to bow dimensions. Then I really like slowly tillering the bow out and when everything evens out at the desired draw length and weight. Then comes my favorite part, shooting the bow in. I find it very satisfying when that tree is in my hand throwing arrows at the target.
Probably my least favorite is the finish work but I am starting to like that part more as I feel that is what a great shooting bow deserves.
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I dislike removing the bark and sapwood from a well seasoned stave. I have carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands and they will go painfully numb at night for a week or so after any violent drawknifing.
I am not working any osage at the present but almost all my osage has had the bark and sapwood removed while it was green because this process is much easier green than seasoned.
My favorite part of bowmaking is taking that first shot with a bow that is newly shaped and tillered.
I also take great pride in sighting down the back of a stave and looking at a newly chased ring. The stave is saying "I am ready to be a bow now", quite a transformation from a rough split out of a log.
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Thought I’d open what is hopefully a fun discussion with no name calling! What is everybody’s favorite and least favorite aspects of bow building?
My favorite is finish details - tip overlays, inlays, handle wraps (ooh I love handle wraps) but also shaping grips and risers.
My least favorite by far is establishing the thickness profile leading up to floor tillering. Ugh.
As discussed, we have the opposite favorite and least favorite things.....I LOVE the first few hours of the process, shaping, sawing, floor tillering, basically anything up to the point of bracing the bow. All the finish work after bracing is tedious and time consuming to do really well and I always get impatient with it. You just need to move back here and I'll start them and you can finish them!
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I love most all aspects of turning a stave into a working bow, from cutting the tree or sapling to the break in arrows loosed. Every step I tire, or get bored with, but what is great about making a bow is about the time I’m getting tired of a particular part it is time to move on to the next step. I love the feeling of after about the 50th arrow turned loose I start to feel confident that it is a bow.
I really do not like finish work much. I very much like to see the works of art on here and wish that kind of detail and artistic ability came naturally to me, but every time I try to pretty one up, it goes bad. Bows to me are utilitarian, a tool, so I tend to get em smooth and seal them and call em done after they are shot in.
Another aspect that I’m not fond of is a feeling of dread throughout the whole tillering process. A feeling that I’ve messed something up, or that I’m not seeing things correctly (gizmo has helped with this a lot). Also the dread that a lot of time and effort will be spent to make toothpicks. This is a bittersweet part of it though, because when everything works out the constant dread makes the success more meaningful. I don’t think I would enjoy it as much if I knew exactly how the bow would come out in the end.
I do not enjoy making bows specifically for others. I like giving people bows I have made, but knowing that I am making a bow specifically for someone else adds stress that the person will not be happy with what I’ve made, or was less than what they expected. I much prefer to tell someone “it’s yours if you want it” after they have mentioned they are pleased with a bow I’ve made.
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I rarely try to 'pretty up' a bow. IMO the wood grain is the most attractive part of the bow anyway. Anything that distracts from that is to much. This of course makes sanding and finishing important, which is tedious.
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My least favorite is removing sapwood from a seasoned osage stave. My favorite is all the rest. :OK
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I HATE the first full brace. Makes me feel like Bugs Bunny when he was testing for dud bombs. (If you get that, you’re old.)
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I like roughing the bow out to shape,,I dont like blowing one up,, :NN
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I definitely enjoy the splitting/roughing out phase, up to floor tiller (although seeing it bend that much is pretty cool). After that, I tend to start moving veerrry slooowwly so I don't mess up, and that can be less fun - I sort of envy the people who go fast (especially the ones who end up with a good bow). My least favorite part is probably heat treating, or any sort of sideways bending.