An introduction.

[Slaughter]

Thanx Jawge,
I appreciate the info.
Ive bookmarked your site for easy reference<g>

[GregB]

Hello Tony,
Lot of good advice and suggestions already given to you. Pappy and I both live in Clarksville, Tn. (Montgomery County). Would like to invite you to the Tn. Classic in May held on Pappy's farm. We get into some bow making during the weekend and actually a few days prior. Last year there were several from PA that came to the shoot, and expect even more in 2008. You could probably make a trip prior to the shoot if you'd like, and Pappy and/or I would be glad to show you some of what we do.

Until then a board bow would probably be the best route to take if you don't have access to seasoned staves. 

[Hillbilly]

Welcome aboard. I'm in western NC about twenty miles from the TN line.

[Slaughter]

OK now I'm gonna show you just how new I am.....
What exactly is the fade area??
and is there somewhere I can find a bowyers dictionary until My BB arrives??

[Slaughter]

Thanx Greg Id love to come if I can manage...
Thanx Hillbilly.  I'm in Mountain City TN  Johnson County

[Pat B]

The fade area is where the handle "fades" into the limbs. 
   There used to be a glossery of terms somewhere around here. Do a search and see what you come up with. In the mean time, just keep asking!    Pat

[Slaughter]

Ok just to be sure Im not REALLY stupid.
The fade is the transition from handle to limbs on the belly opposit the taper??

[Pat B]

The fade area is both in width and thickness.  Generally the belly side tapers from the handle to the limb and the back remains a single growth ring(on a stave bow). On bend through the handle bows there is no fade area. Pat

[a finnish native]

http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,2367.0.html

http://www.perinnejousi.fi/simo/images/

There are some good pictures of plains bows. they are mainly this B profile. If you want to make one, look for an ash, maple, hickory, osage etc. stave that is 50-52" long and about as thick as your wrist. you can take a bigger stave but that means a lot more work. Cut it to a 3 cm x 3 cm stick and press it to some reflex in the handle, but in the handle only.it will have this slight "V" shape. then let it dry for a month (or 3 weeks if you are in a hurry) take it out of the form and taper the thickness so that the handle area, that could be for example 12 cm long would be 3 cm wide and taperind to 1,5 cm wide tips. thickness from the handle region could start out around 2,5-3 cm. tapering to 1,5 cm at the tips. now you can start tillering. I would go for 40 pounds for it is the first bow of this type that you might build. set the bow on the tillering tree and pull 40 pounds. you will achieve it easily with these dimonsions. then scrape off wood from where necessary and pull again. reduce wood until you have the draw lenght that you desire. if it would be 52" long go for a draw lenght of 22½". A good rule in the definition of the drawlenght is to divide the bows lenght by 2.3 (this only in self bows) never pull the bow past the desired draw weight or lenght.
You are going to want to bring it around to that B shape as in those bows in the links also. (in the lower link the pictures 0507 and 0509 are great although that bow has a sinew backing.)
it looks like the mid limb and the tips would bend too much, but they do not due to the shape of the bow. Do not press the limbs down to the handle when setting in form. the so called set will handle that, and these kinda bows will not really take set. (even i haven't managed to get set in these bows) as in the tips would come lower than the handle is. they will come down a bit, but not much. I would suggest around 2-3" of reflex in your first bow. so you can press it to 3" cause you will lose some in different stages of the building of this bow.
Good luck man!

[Eric Garza]

Hey Slaughter,

As one who's fallen in love with the short Plains-style bows I'd definitely recommend making a few longer bows first.  You can get away with a lot of mistakes, relatively speaking, in a 65-70 inch bow.  You can't get away with anything in a reletively narrow-limbed 45 incher, even if you back it.  That wood's under tremendous strain.

It might be worthwhile to start looking for a nice osage, black locust, white oak, elm or mulberry stave for your short bow now, so that when you feel like you're ready for it you'll have a nice piece of wood handy and dry.  I'm working on a 48 inch osage Plains-style bow as we speak and I'll post a few pics once it's done. 

All the best,

-Eric

[Calendargirl]

Welcome, Tony.  There are a lot from TN. on this board as you might have heard and seen.  I am sure you will to know them and pretty soon you will have made your plans to come to the Twin Oaks' Tenn. Classic the first weekend in May.  Go to primitive skills and musings and check out the thread "Life is good".  They meet in Clarksville and during the weekend they have the self-bow challenge where you make your bow (with and abundance of advice and help available if needed) and shoot it in the challenge all that weekend.  Make your plans, it is so much fun and Pappy's farm is beautiful! 

[Slaughter]

Thanx everyone for all the great info Ill need all the help I can get.
TY CG for the info about the shoot in may Id really like to be there its not to far from home.

[Woodland Roamer]

Welcome! I'm not too far away from you down here in Taylorsville NC, just at the foot of the mountians, a little less than two hours. I spend a lot of time up around Boone and hunting turkeys on Snake and Rich Mountians right there close to the state line not far from you. Maybe we could hook up sometime. You'll be able to find plenty of black locust in the area. That is my favorite bow wood that we have locally. I've not stumbled onto any osage around here yet although I'm always on the lookout for it. Those volumes of the TBB will help you out a lot and this website will too!

Alan

[Slaughter]

Glad to meet you Alan.
We could hook up Im sure. Ive got about 200 acres of trees to choose from at my place.<only 6.5 are actually ours> I used to run in your neck of the woods yrs ago My grandmother still lives in lenoir.

[Woodland Roamer]

Hey it's a small world! You should be able to find plenty of staves on 200 acres of TN woodland.

Alan