How have you evolved as a bowyer?

[Badger]

      I tend to look at the human side of this thing as much as I do the bowbuilding itself. Speaking only for myself I will have eternal gratitude for refinding this thing we do whatever it is called. I woke up this morning and just as I do everymorning I find myself pondering a piece of wood I kept in the house which has been designated as my next victim. The big difference is I have been pondering this piece of wood for at least 5 days now. 5 years ago I would have gone to bed pondering this piece and by sun up I would have been working on it. I feel the same passion today I felt when I finished my first bow but somehow it is like a deeper love and respect for the wood I have at hand. A lot of the mystery is gone, a lot of the surprises are gone and I feel a lot more confident in each bow I approach but as the bow starts to come to life I find myself approaching it's climatic peak with much more care and caution, savoring every epic moment of this stage. There is that point I hit where I fell like I have gently but persuasively coaxed this bow to bend, at this point it starts to feel like the bow has now become my partner and I am guiding her into a place she has never been before, she is an unspoiled virgin and if handled with care will become a lady of elegance and beauty and deadly puruasiveness by her own right, I will only do this dance once with her and we will both come out changed and never to be the same again. She will go on and hopefully become a loyal partner to someone who loved her as I did and I will go on searching for my next virgin.

      Yes, I have lost my marbles and am loving every minute of it!!  Badger

[DanaM]

Steve, your as sane as the rest of us

I don't get as much time as I would like to work on bows, but I know the feeling of accomplishment when one
is done and it actually comes out as envisioned. I also know that feeling of failure when one breaks. One of my pleasures
is giving my bows away(probably why I only have 2 of my own bows) The look on their face when you say "its Yours" is
priceless, even if I know they won't shoot it much or at all I hope that deep down I have planted the bowyers virus we all suffer from
I also find myself passing up the clean straight staves in my stash and gravitating to the ugly ducklings hoping to find the beauty that is
locked within

[Marc St Louis]

Why Steve.  I dare say you are waxing poetic 

I am much like you.  I ponder and consider a piece of wood for quite awhile before I actually start working on it.  The thrill of actually bringing a difficult bow to build to its climatic conclusion is matched by little else.

My wife thinks I am cooky but she loves me anyway 

[Keenan]

Few words have graced the pages of PA so eloquently   I was starting to think that maybe I was developing "Bowyer's Block". something similar to writer's block.  Seams I have several in many stages, that I stare at, pick up and hold at times and yes,some that I dream about.  It truly is a "dance"

[Pat B]

Keenan, I am like you with many uncompleted bows of all stages in this corner or that. I also have particular staves set aside to work on next but keep digging in the stave pile for the prefect stave for the perfect bow. (can you say ADHD  )
...and like Dana, I am drawn towards the uglies. I have learned many lessons and have been brought down a peg or two by some of these and look forward to the next.
  But I have found over the last few years that I don't heed the warnings I was given many times and that I have given many times...slow and steady wins the race. Be patient...if your brain ain't in it, get out! Hopefully that lesson will eventually sink in. That's probably why I like osage so much,. It takes my abuse but keeps on truckin".
  Once I had others to talk with, compare notes and bows and tiller and designs with the evolution began in earnest. My bows improved 100% and my patience is getting better.         Pat

[YewArcher]

When I first started I could not keep a stave in the house. I would get a stave in the morning mail and by evening I would have a shooting bow, I would go to Lowes and buy 5 board staves and in the matter of 1 weekend have 5 bows shooting. Now my bow making is circular. I am working on 10 bows at a time and never rushing to finish one. I rotate my work so that I am always letting bows rest during sessions. I also really spend a lot of time researching ancient bows and then even more time matching up particular staves with styles of bows that fit and flatter the design. My goals as a bowyer has changed as well. When I first started all I wanted to build was refelxed osage bows......Now I want to build every historical bow that I can find information on. So.......yup........I have evolved and changed as a bowyer a lot. In ways that I never would have guessed when first starting out. The bigest change is that I used to gain the most satisfaction with shooting my own bow that I made. Now my biggest satisfaction is seeing others shoot that bows that I have made and liking them. It makes my happy to put primitive gear in peoples hands and see tham do well with it.

Steve

[cracker]

Whew all this time I thought I was the only one.By the way my wife thinks I'm nuts but she wants two board bows for my two sons for christmas so right now i'm O.K. By the way that was very well expressed in a way that I could not.I have gone from hammering away at on bow until it is done to the point that I probably have at least six or seven under way at once. I just work on which ever one pleases me at the moment.Thanks Ronnie

[GregB]

I think we all put a little of ourselves into each bow we make.

Making bows parallel lifes journey in that we begin with a few shaky steps, often falling. But with each new step we gain more confidence and are at times helped along by others who have traveled further...helping us to avoid some of the hazards they had experienced. We become more aware of the natural beauty of each piece of wood and our ability to enhance and bring it to it's full potential. That's why I think we grab the knarley piece instead of the perfect straight one, experience has allowed us to reveal the hidden grace of the wood that others not as far along in their journey do not yet realize.

[Dane]

Perhaps this thread should be entitled the examined life (as in the unexamined life is not worth living).

Bow making can lead in other directions, not just bow making. As for me, while I still love to make bows, and figure I have years to keep learning and growing, I only find I have time for one or two projects a year anymore. I have 4 in various stages, two of which I have been working on since 2007. Why rush? Perhaps not being a hunter is a bit of a handicap as well, or changes some of the underlying motivation for making bows?

One the other hand, I have discovered that ancient torsion catapults are absolutely fascinating, and spend most of my time working in that area, and they take up 90% of my free time. Tension machines too that shoot arrows are also fascinating, and that is on my to do list (the gastrophetes, a tension machine with an ovesized composite bow). I guess part of it is many build amazing bows, but few are involved in Greek and Roman siege engines, a field that is still vastly theoretical at this time. Hundreds and maybe thousands of historic bows exist in the world, but zero complete catapults have been found, and there are only a handful of technical documents from 2,000 years ago, all of them corrupted by time and missing much critical data.

Some of the outshoots of bow making for me have been metal working (a forge and learning blacksmithing skills is also something I want to do one day, as well as current sheet metal work and casting), and furnature making. I have a shaker style cabinate I will get to next year, and I wouldn't have considered something like that if I hadn't leaned to use hand tools like the draw knife and spoke shave for bow making. As well, I have a canvas and wood kayak I am going to build, and that would never have been considered if I hadn't starting making self bows.

Dane
 

[George Tsoukalas]

I have no idea why I kept at it during my early years. I must have really wanted to learn how to make bows. It took around 3 years before I got a shooter. Way to long. Lots of breaks. Back in my early days one bow in about 15-20 would be a stable quick shooter. Now that happens more often-at least by my standards. LOL. These days I spend more time passing it on through  helping others, writing articles, maintaining my web site or participation in bulletin boards like this than making them. It's been a great hobby. Jawge

[JackCrafty]

I used to try to make a bow out of any piece of wood I could get my hands on.  Now I'm only working with three or four species.  As I have evolved as a bowyer, my focus has narrowed......and I will eventually choose only one type of wood for my bows.

I find a lot of satisfaction in getting the most out of a piece of wood and learning every aspect of the wood's characterstics.  I hope that making a bow will become second nature and that I won't have to think about it anymore.  Eventually, I want to become "one" with the wood. Eventually, I want to be able to push the wood to it's limits and have the wood push me to my limits....both without breaking (hopefully).

Yep, total basket case.

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[Dane]

Patrick, if you want to be a true basket case, only work in split ash from now on.

And take your meds each day. It's good for you.

Dane

[JackCrafty]

 

[orcbow]

I have not evolved as a bowyer....I've de-evoloved...the more I learn, the farther I have to go. 5 years ago I thought I knew some things, but now I only know that I need  25 hour days, 8 day weeks, 13 months in a year, you get the picture??


No, what I really mean is that when I started I made nice osage bows, now I make bows for orcs!!!!

But seriously, Badger, I share your enthusiasm and love of wood and of the bowmaking process. I am missing one vital element though, time. When baby orcbow grows up a bit, I will make beautiful bows again.

[rkeltner]

all this talk about bowyering making you a basket case and needing to take your meds is off base! building bows is a good substitute for the meds! that said my wife thinks i'm nuts, too, but has said she's proud of my work, too!