Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Burnsie on June 27, 2025, 12:46:05 am
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I’m not sure why it took me so long, but I just finished reading “Hunting the Osage Bow” by Dean Torges. I liked his writing style, and I know he was considered as one of the well known gurus of osage self bows, but I have to be honest, I don’t think I could build a bow by following the process he works through as he tells his story. I enjoyed the story, but I need specific instructions, there are a lot of blanks you have to fill in on your own.
Has anyone ever built an osage self bow using his process? - ie: going from a felled tree to a finished bow in the matter of a couple months - using his drying methods. I am pretty new to the self bow game, but up until now I’ve always assumed you cut an osage log, split it into staves, sealed the ends, and then set it aside for a year or two to “season”. Then you turned the stave into a bow using heat to make some corrections if needed.
What’s everyone’s opinion on Mr. Torges’s method of bow building.
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bow wood can certianly be dried faster than a few years
reducing your stave will help speed drying, and monitoring the drying is prudent when you consider it can be dried faster until the free water leaves the wood and may have to be dried slower as it gets drier.
you might have to change drying envrionments depending on ambient conditions.
having the piece a consistent thickness will let it dry evenly
wasnt Deans steam drying method exclusively for green wood?
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Dean's book was a very important in my progress as a bow maker, his recommendations of proper handling of osage from the stump to the bow was the most important part of the book for me. I didn't have a clue until I read the book, I had lost a lot of osage to bugs and checking when I started out, there wasn't any available information on the subject back then like we have now.
I follow his way of laying out a bow to this day but found that his facit tillering just didn't work for me.
All in all, his book was the most instrumental resource to get me where I am today as a bow maker.
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Its a great book, but I can see that it might be a bit intimidating for a beginning bowyer. You need drying boxes, reflexing forms, tillering trees.
I have built many bows following his advice, but I had about 5 years experience under my belt, before I used his methods. Personally I would recommend reading the Bowyers Bibles first and getting a good handle on the basic concepts, tillering and design, to learn what makes a good bow. Then combine this knowledge with Dean's. Dean really shines with the details on what to do with all facets of the process. The book itself is a work of Art, an ode to making the osage bow. A blueprint for present and future generations to keep the skills of the bowyer alive and kept at the highest standards, both for practical and artistic goals. He was a real perfectionist. One of the greats of the wooden bow renaissance.