How was your introduction to bow making?

[Badger]

   The broken draw knife post made me think about something. I had commented on how many draw knives I had given away to promising students who soon just went on to other hobbies. They never got the bug the way I and a lot of us here have. I can't help but notice the high quality of bows I am seeing her coming out of new comers to the sport. The older members here like myself kind of grew up with a decent group of bowyers leading the way for us and guiding us but we still had a lot to learn and discover. There has been a steady increase in the amount of accumulated information that we are all learning and then passing down. It has reached a point now where new discoveries are getting fewer and further between and the gains from these same discoveries are smaller, but still rewarding when we stumble across something.

     The thing I am wondering about is how it affects those just starting off. I would think starting right off at a proficient level when properly trained allows a person to go directly into the refinement levels which is where we really get to express ourselves creatively.

    i have a question for relative new comers ( 5 yrs or less) what was you impression of the sport when you discovered it, what did you like about it?

  Anyone can answer regardless of years.

[Soggydog]

Having just got my 3rd board bow finished, I think you ask a good question. It's interesting to see how people get their start. Here's my story:

When I was a little kid, my brother, friends, and I would go out and, like most boys do, attempt to pass our time by swinging sticks at one another. Of course I was too much of a little gentleman to bludgeon my buddies, so I instead got a little piece of twine and a fiberglass driveway reflector and made a little 7lb(ish) bow that shot reeds for arrows. I soon had some PVC pipe bows shooting at higher draw weights, but since my principle targets were my brother and friends, I was quickly persuaded not to try any more antics. In my early teenage years I got a couple of wheelies and eventually discovered a 45# glass recurve in the attic, but the only arrows I had were fetched with plastic vanes, which made shooting the glass bow less than enjoyable. (Say what you will about glass, we strung and shot the thing backwards for years!) I eventually lost interest in shooting; between the optics, releases, gizmos, and whatchamacallits that came with shooting a compound, it just felt more like a rifle than a bow in a lot of regards, and they never quite gave me the buzz the old PVC bows did. I kept telling myself I'd build another bow of my own, but other than the occasional failed attempt to make one out old piping, I largely had little to nothing to do with archery after I turned 15.

Fast forward four and a half years, and my friends and I were again passing the time with various swordfighting related hobbies. One of our guys was getting into blacksmithing, and, wanting to be able to use his armor, had us go and check out the SCA. Along with rattan swordfighting, the organization also has an archery component, but us, all being poor college students, weren't about to go out and buy several hundred dollar bows just to try it. Despite this, my buddies' girlfriends (don't worry, 1:1 girlfriend to buddy ratio) kept nagging them to get some bows, and, half exasperated, half interested themselves, the guys approached me to ask if I would attempt to build some out of wood.

I of course, had never built a selfbow before, and after scouring the internet and reading about every article and thread I could find (PA was a huge help and inspiration), decided to walk down to Menards and pick up a hickory board. After an entirely too difficult roughing out process (we ran the board the wrong way on the bandsaw and consequently had to make the belly the back-- we gave named the bow "Which Way" after the blunder) I tillered the thing out and got a few dozen shots off before the it went out of wack. It was enough to hook me though, and after practicing on another few Red Oak board bows, I'm thoroughly hooked, and eager to get to a shoot sometime. (I still haven't actually ever seen a selfbow in person that was made by anyone other than myself!)

[DC]

I'd done bonsai and boats so I needed a hobby that started with BO . Actually I played at making bows and arrows a lot when I was a kid and as I grew up I would make a bow and arrow just about every time I found a feather. It was finding PA and all the right info that kicked the last found feather into this hobby. If it wasn't for the internet I would have built another toy bow that would have broken by the next day. With guidance from you guys it went smoothly.

[Chippintuff]

I am brand new. After learning to knap flint, I started gaining more and more interest in learning how to make a bow. I was already familiar with this forum and others, so I started reading the bow forums. Over the last 7+ years I have gone from thinking knapping was all the hobby I needed, to seriously wanting to learn how to make a nice bow.

I have some friends who live reasonably close, and occasionally I get to see one of them. About a month ago one of them (Sasquatch) helped me cut an osage tree, and he marked the stave splits on the end of the best log. There was a dead spot in the tree, and it messed up a lot of the staves because of the altered growth pattern and termites had begun to do damage in unpredictable places. A few worm holes are present too. I still got 5-6 reasonably good ones except that they all have very thin growth rings. As I shape these into rough bow forms, Sasquatch gives me some advice and coaching. It might even be possible with his assistance for me to make a fair bow the first time. It will probably come in low in draw weight, but if it shoots well, there is a use for it.

So far I have four staves roughed out enough that they are taking approximate bow shapes, and I have been practicing chasing rings and following the grain to lay the bows out. In spite of the fact that the backs and ends were sealed well, two of them developed beginning splits longitudinally oriented from front to back. At that point I plastered all of them on all four sides with lots of Tite Bond II. The cracks are no longer moving.

When I get to straightening and tillering, you will see more pictures of work and progress. Thanks to this forum and others, I have a fair idea of what is ahead. You bowyers have set the standard pretty high, but you help folks like me a lot. That is worth a lot.

WA

[Msturm]

I had a couple of buddies who shot slefbows and I looked at them and thought, I bet I can make that.... Then I googled it. I wound up here. Then TG. I dropped Manny a line and he showed me how to tiller my first strawberry guava bow, gave me a card scraper and showed me where to buy a farriers rasp.   I have been an addict since. Every bow is a new discovery and I get really excited when I get a shooter or get the tiller just how I want it, or get a bend to stay. etc.   

[Hawkdancer]

Not real sure why I decided to make a self bow, but the starting point was trying to figure out if I could repair an heirloom Ben Pearson "old Hickory" that had been passed down to a friend's son.  Wound up on this site, found out it was fatally cracked, and the bug started nibbling.  Wound up working a trade for some hickory staves, and have a bow in the works.  I have been shooting bows off and on for 70 years, and started re-fletching my own arrows about 30+ years ago.  Still have the first glass bow I bought in '57, with a set of matched arrows for $15.00.  I think the info and advise on PA is real important, and helps raise the skill level quickly.  Still trying to master the drawknife and spoke shave, though!   Hope to make it to MoJam this summer and get some hands on training.  Made several shoot arrows, and have more in the works.  Also shoot muzzleloaders and high power center fires occasionally make meat!
Hawkdancer

[Julian]

I always made dinky bows from green wood when I was a kid, and I just got slightly better at it over time.

[Eric Krewson]

I understand the draw knife thing, I gave away untold dozens of Gizmos to people who were "thinking"  about making a bow. I found most of the people in this category can think about making a bow forever and never make one.

Now I only give Gizmos to people who I know are actively trying to make a bow, not just thinking about it.

[Dances with squirrels]

I've given lots of time, tools, and materials to folks who said and seemed were all excited to make bows, but most folks make one, or maybe one or two more, and that's it. Many are fine if you're there holding their hand through the whole thing, but on their own, they soon quit.

Even though that's happened with some of the folks I've instructed, it doesn't bother me a bit because all it takes is a few to grab the ball and run with it, they teach a few, and those folks teach a few.... it spreads... and that makes it all worth it.

[bjrogg]

I started like Chippintuff. My cousin and I were inseparable growing up. He found a arrowhead when he was five. Didn't even know what it was but his dad did and kept it for him. He lives all the way across the country now but comes home every summer for a couple weeks. A little over two years ago he brought some stone determined to make a arrowhead. He invited me to attempt one to. I had zero knowledge of knapping but found it relaxing. He left the stone we didn't turn into gravel and after watching many hours of YouTube I finally started to get the hang of it. I made some very crude arrows and then a poorly  tillered white ash bow. The moment I let loose my crudely constructed arrow from my poorly tillered ash bow and watched it on its short spiral course to somehow miraculously hit the four by four foot square foam target I'd made I was forever changed. I broke that bow about 150 shoots later in front of a crowd of old timers who thought I had a screw loose in the first place. They all laughed and I laughed with them but I missed my bow terribly and started out to make a better one. I found Marc and after pestering him almost every day for several weeks I had my second bow. It was much better tillered and even of good hunting weight to. After months of shooting it I finally got enough nerve up to take it back to show the old timers. They were laughing and making Indian noises like from some old western movie. I let my first arrow loose and thump. Then total silence as I let my two remaining arrows loose and all hit the target with a thump. Then they all told me how good I did and wanted to see my bow.
    These guys are all very impressed with what I've done now. Several come over to my shop at nights knowing I'll be there working on something. They just like to watch me turn some piece of stone or a log they'd cut for firewood into a very functional beautiful deadly weapon. I've tried many times to get some of these guys to try to make their own, but they'd rather just watch. I guess that's ok and maybe some day they will decide to pick up the draw knife and wittle out a bow themselves. I know several have watched me enough and I've explained enough to them that I'm sure they could make a selfbow at least as good as my first.
     Two and a half years ago I had no idea I'd be doing any of this stuff let alone being hopelessly addicted to it. I'd never even shoot a wheelie bow much less a selfbow. I love bringing a piece of wood back to life. I started out very conservative with my bows. I gain confidence with almost every bow I make. Occasionally I gain humility to. I do very much enjoy where I came from, where I am and where I'm headed.
     I am so greatful to all of you who have helped me more than you'll ever know. This is such a great site and there's a little bit of all of us that make it work.
      Bless you all and keep on passing it down
Bjrogg

[Selfbowman]

Just me and the Bowyers Bible for60-75 bows. Then I met Lonnie Dye and seen a good one and then I got it. As far as what got up my interest. I became a archer and thought every archer should build at least one bow so I did. About 250 bows back. Arvin

[Stick Bender]

My Dad was a old school depression era farm boy & he taught my brothers & I if you want somthing you have to build it , so after dinner we would go to the basement shop & make every thing from go carts to guns , and we loved making giant kites using plaster lats but we couldnt find any good string that would hold up but we found out the kite bow made a decent kids bow and harassed the black birds population with them, I shot traditional Fg bows for next 30 years before trying my first real self bow ! But thats where started for me !

[BowEd]

Like BJ I started out shooting only self bows for barely 10 years now.No compounds or FG bows before hand so it's been a long haul getting to know things about bows in general.Friends here that have made self bows but now make FG bows were very helpful in the beginning and the TTB series helped me a bunch on my own before getting onto the PA site too.I'm sure I've made close to or more than triple digit successful bows since.I'm not counting really.I do try to do my best and usually am my own worst critic.I had the same sort of upbringing like Stick Bender from my father also meaning you get what you put into things.I think making bows from a variety of different woods helps a person learn to tiller better just as well as making more extreme designs from familiar woods.The overall key with each is to just slow down while making these bows.
One thing that'll stand out for new comers is that this site will be very generous in helping someone make a bow.

[stickbowbeard]

I started out just loving to shoot guns.  I was an infantry officer in the Army, had a safe full of guns, and spent a lot of money on ammunition so I could shoot them.  I didn't come from a hunting family, or even a gun family, but after I had spent some time on the range I was getting board with shooting at paper and thought it was time I took on the challenge of hunting.  I bought a hunting license in Washington State in 2005, and took to the woods with a rifle after the elusive blacktail with absolutely no real guidance.  I just walked through the woods hoping I'd get lucky.  Well, I did not get lucky, but I really love the outdoors, and enjoyed spending a little more time in the woods.  The following summer, my entire unit was moved to Germany.  I wasn't able to take my guns, and my parents weren't willing to store them for me, so I actually sold most of my guns prior to the move, and bought a compound bow.  I was amazed at how quickly I got good at shooting the bow.  I mean, it was a lot like shooting a gun.  Just line up the sights, and you hit what you were aiming at.  Sweet!  I quickly learned to love shooting that bow much more than my guns, and when I returned to the States 3 years later, didn't even bother building my gun collection back up.  I was going to grad school, but did hit the mountains in Utah one of those seasons with my compound bow and a mule deer and elk tag in my pocket.  Again, no real guidance, but I had read a lot by this time and tried to apply what I had read.  No luck, but I loved just being out there in the mountains.

After completing my Masters degree, I moved to Pittsburgh, and met someone out there that was really into hunting, and got me access to some private farms to try hunting.  That first season out there, I had a couple of shots at some nice bucks with my bow, but both times I failed to pay proper attention to twigs, and watched my arrows deflect and miss both times.  When rifle season came around, I hit the woods with a shotgun and made my first deer harvest, a nice 8 point buck.  The following year, I resolved to do it with a bow, and succeeded in taking another nice 8 point buck with my compound bow.  However, I learned some things that season.  First, early in the season I was taking a shot from my treestand at a doe, and failed to give my lower limb adequate clearance from the rail on my climbing stand, and ended up messing up a cam and totally derailing the string.  I couldn't fix it myself, and had to take it to a repair shop.  A few weeks later, my son accidentally shot my range finder .  How on earth could I hunt with a compound bow and no range finder?  On the day that I killed my buck that year,  I walked into the woods, picked a tree along a travel corridor I was very familiar with, paced the distance from a rub to my treestand at 30 yards, and when my buck walked by that tree, I knew the distance and made a good shot.  After that season, I realized, I didn't like relying on all the space aged technology.  We ended up getting a little unexpected money after the season, and my wife told me I could go buy a gun with it.  I went to Field and Stream, looked at some guns, and came home with a bear grizzly recurve.   Best purchase ever!  Man, I fell in love with archery!  I loved watching my arrow fly, and after I took my first shot with that bow, I don't think I ever touched my compound again, and eventually sold it.  A few months later, I ran into the TBB I in the local library, took it home, and began reading.  For years I had actually been toying with the idea of building a bow, even when I was shooting my compound, but didn't know where to start.  I had even visited Bingham Projects since I lived in Ogden, but never got around to it.  After reading about it in TBB, I though "Man, I can do this" and built my first board bow a few months later.  The design was flawed, but I shot it probably 500 or more times before it exploded one fine winter morning while I was in a tree stand, and I had just stood up to take a few practice draws to warm up the muscles.  I subsequently made a couple of nice board bows, backed with bamboo and rawhide, and then moved onto making selfbows from staves.  Man, I love this!  It has become very addicting!  I have definitely not made every bow perfect, and my first one failed fantastically!  But every bow I make is a little better than the last one, and I have learned a lot with each attempt.  I believe the TBB series has really saved me from some real disasters, and having people I could turn to for help, which has resulted in not too many total failures (really only two of the 10-11 bows I've made have tragically broken), but I have still learned from mistakes I have made on each bow.  With what I learn from each bow, it just makes me excited to apply it on the next bow to make it better, which keeps me going.

[Bayou Ben]

This is my story and introduction all in one.  I'll keep it short.
I always loved wood working and bow hunting and when I stumbled across a board bow build, I instantly became infatuated with bow building.  I built a couple board bows and moved to laminated bows, and now I build mostly R/D laminated bows.  I've been building for a little over 2 years now and I have somewhere around 15 bows under my belt (not counting the broken ones  ).  I love a challenge and bow building provides that challenge. 
Gotta love when my wife or friend says "how many bows do you need?"  I just laugh and shake my head knowing that they can't possibly understand. 
I live in Southeast Louisiana and I've never met another bowyer, so everything I know comes from the internet or trial an error.
I'm on Tradgang under Bmorv as I know there's a lot off crossover between sites. 
Glad to be here.  You guys talk about the things I'm interested in.