Some advise please

[John Dodge]

I am fairly new to bows in general and even newer to traditional bows but never the less I am excited about building.  I have read The Traditional Bowyers Bible from cover to cover (vol 1 & 2)and read numerous post on this forum. Folks - I am one of them people who can't just read something and then go do it and I understand that these books don't touch on the finer points of the craft - I have much to learn.  I have to do it (repearedly) until I understand what I am doing and learn the basics.  So, with that in mind, the hurdle I have at this point is a supply of appropriate wood.  Where can I get a seasoned stave (several of them in fact) on which to get to work?  I have a small shop, tons of tools and a fire in the belly to get to work.  Any suggestions would help guide me on the trail.

[Pat B]

Check out George Tsoukalas' and Mickey Lotz's sites on board bows. Good red oak boards are readily available at local hardware/lumber centers. If you have a good lumber mill handy they probably have hickory and hard maple; both of which will make good bows.
   If you want to work with staves, Mike Yancy of Pine Hollow(a sponsor) or others in the classified ads here should have good, seasoned staves for you.     Pat

[sulphur]

you can find staves on ****.  but buyer beware.  that should get you started.  I would also take a look around for trees you can cut on your own.  Farmers, friends with land, even your own back yard.

[va]

John Dodge - I am also a newbie bowyer.  I read a ton of stuff but it wasn't until I started trying to do what I read that I learned anything.

I started by making kid's bows out of whatever I could get real cheap.

The best bow was out of a black locust log that I salvaged (took without permission) from a construction site.  The second best was out of a replacement sledge handle that I bought from a hardware store.  The black locust taught me about splitting into stave dimensions and showed me how much scraping is involved during tillering (a LOT).

The sledge handle was hickory so I split it and spliced it at the handle.  Again the lessons were invaluable.

I backed all of my projects with rawhide and gave them to my nieces and nephews with a little instruction and the promise that I would replace it WHEN they broke it.

This is a long way of saying that I suggest you get whatever wood you can get and learn from the process of building. Save your money until you are relatively confident in the lessons you learned cheaply.