how long does it take to make a bow?

[darwin]

first bow I ever made took me 15 min and was made out of a ceder plank, duct tape, and a piece of bailing wire for a string. I had to draw it with my feet and it hit the foam target at 15 yds and stuck was able to do three shots before it broke in half. I won the argument that my brothers and i were having about whether you could make your own bow or not. Now I spend several weeks/months on a bow but im limited by my job and where i live so i only get about 3 hrs a night to work on projects and im never doing just one thing at a time. Right now im working on about 5 bows 4 knives and a crossbow but i dont have much in the way of deadlines (except my trade bow and one im building for a charity auction)

[rossfactor]

Usually takes me about 20 hours to make a bow from start to finish.  Unfortunately that 20 hours is usually spread out over 2 months   .

gabe

[Marks]

I wish I had kept time on my first bow that I'm making right now. I'm taking it  very slow since I just cut the tree in December. I'm almost done floor tillering and really taking my time. I'll go out and scrape some and and sand a little and go back inside then do it again in a few days. I just bought some fast flight and need to start learning to make a string.  I think I can get a low brace on it soon if not already. I think I'll enjoy going out to work on it more when it still daylight longer after work. I bet I've got 30 hours easily already. Like I said I started with a tree and have done everything by hand except cutting the tree down with a chainsaw.

[Christian Soldier]

I've made a EW bow in less than a day and several bows in about a week.

Recently I've been taking my time a lot more with the bows. A lot of the astetecis and tiller perfection are made in that last 1/4 inch of wood.

[RyanY]

At MOJam I get an osage stave every year and make a bow to shoot in the clout shoot. With the excitement of the event I usually pump them out in about 3 hours meaning to the point where I need to start sanding. One year I got one done and another shooting by the last day.

[Roy]

Maybe it's just me, but I know a few guys who make a couple bows a week or more. Seems they just make them as fast as they can to get them done so they can say I made 3 bows this week.. That's all fine and dandy I guess. But what can ya do with 50 or 60 bows a year? Sure you can donate or give them away, I've done that many a time myself. But when I make a bow, it takes me like it does  Eric, 3 to 4 weeks. I want it to be nice, I want no tools marks, I want a great finish and I want a great shooter. However I am mainly into BBO bows, so ya have to consider the prep for glue up, the glue up, the cutting out, the tillering, the shooting in, the final sanding and the final sanding again and then the finish. My finish alone takes 4 days waiting for the tung oil to dry 24 hours between coats.

But I'm a 64 year old fart so I just work at my own pace. I have nowhere to go but down hill and I'm in no big hurry to get there:) I might work on a bow 3 or 4 nights a week after work, or I might only work on it 1 or 2 nights a week. Or maybe not at all for a week. A few years ago it was 5 to 6 nights a week. Now it's when I feel like it. I have nothing to prove by pumping out a lot of bows, I know I can do it.

And it's all fun and it's all in the mind of the Bowyer himself of what and how he wants to go about it.

[crooketarrow]

  Although I'm not as old as ROY (51). I'm like him, 20 years ago I was like most on here and worked a bow straight through 2 to 5 hours I was shooting it. I learned a long time ago to slow down. It was'nt a sudden thing I start doing this mosty because of the many other things to do (hobbies). Which slowed me down I slowly saw the advanges.
   I only work on a bow if my heart and mines into it. I like to think a little more go's into my bows than just the work it take to make it. I'll use'lly take a month or 3 or 6. I have taken a year on my personal bows. Now I don't just give up on them. I use'lly have a number of bows at different stages. I like to work on a bow then hang it up on a rack over my work bench and look at it every time I walk in my shop and as 'm working on other bows. I might end up takeing the bow a different direction. You'll see things you use'lly miss hurrying along. Exspecially when it comes to tillering.
   I've been building bows like this for as long as I remember. So when I build a bow for someone I tell them I don't put a time limit on it.