hickory flatbow blank from 3rivers

[kasey]

how hard is it to make and what would i need to make it.would be my first try at making a bow.need to save some money first.any info would be great

[Pat B]

For your first bow go to Lowe's or Home Depot and pick out a nice red oak board. If you check out Jawge's web site it will tell you everything you need to know to pick out the right board and what to do with it once you get it. You can read and study Jawge's site while you are saving your money.
    Pat

[hill boy]

Good advice Pat, I may try that myself. Good luck Kasey.

[Igon51]

Pat B.
Would you please paste a link to Jawge's website...Google does not turn up anything.

Thanks,
mike

[Bjorn]

Good advice above.....also set your expectations low and don't be disappointed if you break one or two. It is a learning process. Be sure and assemble the rasps and scrapers and build a tillering tree.

[Pat B]

Do a search here on TradGang for George Tsoukalas.  That's "Jawge". I don't have a link to his site but you should find it there or someone else will come up with it.   Pat

[Kevin L.]

Click here for Jawge's site.

 http://mysite.verizon.net/georgeandjoni/archer.html

[Pat B]

Thanks Kevin.     Pat

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I agree... go to home depot and get a nice straight grain board and have fun... Last month I finished my 12 bow with in 1 Year... out of the 12 I have 2 that still shoot, 1 is a 30#@24" (way to light for me) & 1 is a 51#@24" pyramid 70" long bow. In a month or so a friend will be cutting down some maple, ash & a sassafras tree.


Do you know anyone that has horses? if so go there when their farrier is there and see if You can get a old rasp from them. You will also need something to scrap with... a pocket knife works great. You will also need a tillering board/tree & a scale (with out these....You'll be braking more bows then shooting them)

[rbbhunt]

i think it is Volume 2 of Traditional bowyer's bible that has a good article on building board bows.  Get it.

[joekeith]

I've been looking at 3 River's and Crow's Head Outfitter's.  They both look nice.  Let us know what you decide on.  Good luck...  

[Bjorn]

The first three Hickory boards I made broke-they are good to practice tillering on. Don't have too many expectations and learn how to tiller and pick wood-you would be spending too much money buying and shipping board bow staves from vendors.
Graduate to Osage with a bamboo backing before you start to lay out money, and learn to make your own. At least that is what worked for me.

[Igon51]

Kevin,
thanks for posting Jawge's site!
Mike