Since you are hundreds of miles from anyone (that we can think of, although there are undoubtedly selfbowyers in your area) here's what I'd suggest. If you are not planning on making a lot of bows and don't have alot of tools, I'd suggest either a Dryad bow blank by Mike Westvang for a BBO or for a pure selfbow, an osage bow blank by Gary Davis of Rattlestick bows. The most time consuming part of bow building is bark and sapwood removal and getting the thing into 1 growth ring.This could easily consume one whole day. Second is laying out the bow and cutting to outline. Third is getting it to floor tiller.#2 & #3 could take another whole day. And God forbid the wood has any issues that need dealing with like limb twist or alignment that needs straigthening on a caul with steam or a heat gun. Either the Dryad blank or the Gary Davis blank will have #'s 1 & 2 out of the way and mostly on the way to #3. Both will be "issue free" allowing you to concentrate on getting a bow out of the wood. Either of these blanks can be tillered in a few hours, by spending one day with an experienced bowyer.
You won't have to have a place to cut wood, a pickup truck, a chainsaw, wedges, maul, shellac, waiting time for the wood to dry,bandsaw or a draw knife.
What you will need is a rasp, a scraper and a chain saw file, some sandpaper and some tru-oil or spar urethane.
IMO a good clean osage split is worth about $100. You can get one of Garys or Mikes for under $150. A real bargain considering.
I'd be glad to help you out in tillering a blank if we can arrange it.
Topic: self bows (Read 849 times)
