Remember when you first started?

[Badger]

   I recently saw some bows from a young man just getting stated and it sure brought back some memories. I was trying to figure out exactly when I started and my son showed me a photo of something I know was right near the begaining and we were able to trace it to 1997. I know when I started I had no idea anyone made bows since the indians started using guns. I think I had one disaster after the next for several years. If I liked a bow I would put fiberglass on the back just to keep it from breaking. I started off building laminated bows from 1/8" thick strips of wood I would buy at rocklers. I think I would use 3 of them at about 60" long with about a 14" riser and get somewhere around 45 or 50#. Most of these broke but ironicaly one of the very early ones came out a great shooter looking just like a wilcox duoflex with working recurves. That one lasted about 5 years and drewlow 50's.
      I tried one board bow after another with no success. I had a few branch bows that shot but were sluggish. ( I had no concept that wood needed to dry) Eventually I bought a computer and found jawges bow sight with full instructions and I was off and running.
      The part I am really curious about if anyone else started with no prior knowledge or help was what aspects did you grasp on your own. I know in my case tillering and narrowing the outer limbs came pretty natural. What never did come to me was the concept of one growth ring or selecting very straight grain. I don't think the moisture level in the wood I had ever though much about either. Ash and maple backs at that time seemed about the most relaible from what i had to choose from but I still had a dismal success rate. I was almost content and felt successful when I got one out to about 26". But I never thought to measure draw length either so really not sure. I did weigh up some of my old arrows I made and they were between 700 and 800 grains.
      My first really successful long bow was either red oak or ash board. I took it to the archery store to buy some arrows and had the guy weigh it for me. He kept telling me he wouldn't be responsible if it broke. I bought a premade b50 string for it and some aluminum arrows and asked if I could shoot it through his chrono. I probably only drew it about 26" and hit 145 fps, have no idea what the arrows weighed. But I know right from that first bow on I wanted to test everyone of them.  Steve

[NTProf]

I have only been making bows for about 6 months, but started without any prior knowledge. I am only a novice, so my response may not help out. The only thing I figured out on my own was that I could get a better tiller if I made sure during floor tillering that the taper was even, with no dips or low spots. I spent quite a bit of time siting down the limb to make sure. But I broke three bows in a row during tillering and was about to give up, when Jawge helped me make two that worked. Without Jawge's help I probably would have given up and bought a bow.

[cracker]

Badger
  I got into bow building about ten or twwelve years ago when my son was ten and screaming bow and arrow for christmas I was broke so a store bought one was out of the question. To shield my son from the reality of the money situation I chopped down a hickory tree and made a bow which failed due to a knot. About then a major outdoor magazine printed an article about making your own bow. I was saved made a bow out green wood which took terrible set but the kid didn't care he had a bow and that was all that mattered.Money got more plentiful and I bought a wheely bow that lasted about one season It just wasn't for me then the quest for a man sized bow led me here. My son is grown and on his own the bow still lives. I still have it I'll take a picture and post tomorrow.

[George Tsoukalas]

Badger and NTProf, glad to help. I started  around 1989/90 or so. I broke a good 14 over the course of 3 years. Then I finally got a shooter that I could hunt with. Still have it probably because it was really wet when I built it and took around a 5 inch set. It's been a quite an enjoyable journey. I'm happy I've had  some good folks to keep me company along the way. Jawge

[D. Tiller]

I was always a nut about ancient weapons or anything that went ballistic. So bows were a natural thing for me. Never liked the things with wheels on them. Tried it once and thought why buy this when I could buy a gun? Then I though "What $800.00 for a bow and arrows! You have got to be kidding!!!!" Then realized its all a scam by the manufacturers. Break a string on one and you pay, wheels out of alighnment - you pay; Got to get the new one with all the bells and whistles -- you guessed it! You pay!

So I looked back into history and saw the beauty of the all wood an natural bows. A) Cut tree down - price $0 or very little B) Season - no pay c) build bow - no pay d) make arrows - very little or nothing = no pay  e) ammount of enjoyment and sence of accomplishment = PRICLESS!!!

To tell the truth that firs bow was prety bad but it still shoots and sits on my wall in a very special place!

David T

[knightd]

I'm glad that you put this post up here because I really couldn't remember when I started until you made me think hard about it.  It was in 89/90.  I was working at J's sporting goods in Michigan and shooting on their compound league when a guy come in with a snakey osage bow with rattle snake skins on the back to put on consignment and he let me shoot it.  At that point I wanted that bow so bad I could taste it.  Then he told me he wanted $650 for it   I said I can build one for that kind of money!! YEAH RIGHT!!!!  Long story short, I sold my compound the next month and been trying to build bows ever since.

David

[mullet]

  Steve, I think it was about 10 or twelve years ago when I made my first one. I cut down a green hickory sapling and took it home and split it down the center. I chopped it out with my hatchet and scraped it down with a little meat cleaver. I made it green and it shot around 45#. I was really proud of that bow and was showing it to all my buddies that were hard core wheelie shooters. My one buddy, the head wheelie Guru,  pulled it back, it broke and he looked at me and said " hmm, that sucks" and handed it back.
  Pissed me off so much he set me on a mission in life. After finding this site, with people like George, Marc, and Badger, it was like time warping ahead about 5 years. I try to help everybody now and give away a bunch of bows. By the way, I still have that one good limb off my first bow. I made it into an Atlatl.

[FlintWalker]

George Tsoukalas helped me from start to finish on my first bow.  That was a couple years ago and on a different site.   I got a shooter on my first try. It was a 65' hickory recurve.
  I still shoot it now and then, but it has some frets on the belly so I don't hunt with it.
  Thanks Jawge!  Because of you and Ryano, my expense for bowhunting has dropped about 98%   Saw Filer  

[Ryano]

Badger, I still have some of my first bows...They are monstrosity's. I'd be embarrassed to show them to y'all. It was pretty much a money thing (or the lack of) for me as well that got me into making bows. I watched Dan Fitzgerald Shooting a compound bow instinctively and I want to to shoot like him. I tried it with a compound bow but it seemed to unnatural. I wanted a traditional bow so bad I could taste it but I had no money to buy one...so I got on the internet and did a search for making your own wood bow. Printed a couple pages of generic instructions and went out and cut some green saplings and started carving. I to didn't have any idea the wood needed to season and dry, so my first bows took massive amounts of set if they didn't brake first. Then I finally searched out more information and got book about bows and arrows of the native Americans. This help to teach me about following a growth ring which brought my success ratio way up. But still the bows seemed to take massive amounts of set. It wasn't until I found the bowyers bibles that I really began to understand what it was all about, and started to make some half ways decent bows. The oldest one of my bows I have thats dated is from 1999 so I'd say I've been at this bow building thing for almost ten years now. Hard to believe, Time fly's when your having fun.  

[mullet]

 Sawfiler, whooa! it being 65' long, no wonder it chrysaled.

[Pat B]

I started shooting a bow in 1978 when I bought an old Shakespeare recurve for $5. Hunted that first year and missed a nice 8 point...3 times! I wish deer were still that stupid! I switched to a wheel bow(Bear Blacktail, nobody ever heard of it) I bought fully dressed for $50. Then I bought a NEW PSE Nova with all the bells and whistles(lighted pendulum sight, etc) and hunted with it for a few years and killed a few deer. During this time I bought Jay Massey's  book "The Bowyers Craft" and that began my addiction. I even sent my PSE back to the factory to have the cams replaced with wheels so I could start shooting instinctively more comfortably. The last 2 deer I killed with the PSE I don't remember dropping the string(my first 2 truly instinctive shots). In those days I was making bows of sassafras and white oak. All had lots of set. I still have my first osage bow(it blew) and one of my better early locust bows ("KILLER" by the way ).
   I signed up for PA months before the first issue ever came out, after seeing an ad in Traditional Bowhunter Magazine. When I finally got a computer at home I signed up here on the PA site and have been here ever since, through thick and thin. This site is where I got the knowledge, encouragement and confidence to go from building wood "bow like things" to building real bows. I'm an archer first and a hunter next. I like the idea of making my equipment as simple as possible but still being effective as a hunting weapon.
   I built bows for many years just having a few books to read for instructions. I still have all the books and read and re-read them all from time to time. I went through lots of sassafras, white oak staves and locust fence posts, that I could buy for $6 each, in the early years and still drool over some of the cut ends I saved for other projects. Boy, I screwed up lots of good bow wood before I knew better.
  My most fulfilling bow building season(after hunting season and before fishing season ) was when a "friend" gave me 3 staves of osage "firewood" with good intentions. I spent that winter learning how to deal with knots, twists, hoop-t-doos and just about any malady you can think of in bow wood. By spring I had 5 shootable bows with lots of character. My skill level and confidence hit the roof after that.    
   You new guys just getting started, you can see that you ain't alone in your sorrow over a broke or badly bent bows.  We have all been there.  Learn from your mistakes and you haven't lost anything!!!     Pat

[George Tsoukalas]

You are welcome, Saw Filer. I am glad that you are having fun with this fine pastime of ours. Jawge

[Rich Saffold]

Ya it was the late 80's and I was trying to rehab a dislocated shoulder. I couldn't shoot yet, but figured trying to make a wood bow would exercise my shoulder..so there was this hockey stick in the garage with some guy named "Wayne" written on it, and I cut off the blade and started shaving wood.  I ended up wrapping it with fiberglass and it made it though about a hundred shots, and I was having fun...

[GregB]

When I was a boy my dad had a couple of old recurves, my brothers and I used to shoot arrows straight up into the sky in the field behind our house and watch them disappear. I started out with compounds in 1976, always shot fingers. One of the guys in a archery club I was in got a Bear recurve and we couldn't understand why he would want to hunt with it...I just didn't get it then. Side note: I've tried to get in touch with him several times in the past few years, I'd love to make him a bow...Jan Davis, you out there?

I think it was around 1986 or so that Anthony and I cut some osage behind my parents house, we carried those logs out close to a mile on our shoulders to get them home. Anthony (BigA) had purchased Massey's book, and leant it to me to read. I remember being scared to death of messing up trying to chase a grain on the billets we had chosen to make bows from. I finally gave up on mine, but Anthony kept at it, and after several years of working on his bow and then putting it away for a while, he had a shooting bow. I was lucky enough to see him take his first deer with it while hunting Land Between the Lakes a few years back...man that was special!

I finally got interested again while visiting Twin Oaks during the Classic and a guy was there demonstrating bow making with osage. I had my youngest son with me by that time, and I bought a piece of osage and with Mike's help I made a bow for my son that weekend. I was finally hooked! I became friends with Mike, and he and another friend and I made bows one weekend while staying in a cabin up in the Smokey mountains. I actually got two bows shooting that weekend. I had known Pappy for a long time, but never really knew he made his own bows. With the start that Mike and Scott had given me, I started making bows with Pappy, and you know what a wealth of knowledge he has! 

I wish I had stuck with it way back when Anthony and I first started, but I was using a recurve ever since around 1986 and I guess developed the primitive roots I needed to make selfbows. I've been fortunate having great teachers!

[Pappy]

I started in 90-91 I think,had a hard struggle for a while,lot of kinling, Then like Jawges I got one
that you could shoot and hunt with,I still have it,Hickory ,stacks like crazy and about 3 inches of string follow.It don't look so good now but back then I remember it was a beauty.It was something
I just had to do then and now it is a very big part of my life. I have meet some of the finest
people because of it from all over the country that I would have never known without it.It's been
a blast and hope to keep it up for another 30/40 years. Meet a old guy in MI. that was 87 and still
at it,so there is hope.
   Pappy