What is a stave??? i dont get it

[bdgerfn20]

In my quest to learn bow about bow building i keep seeing the words stave. Can anyone explain it to me? i just dont understand what exactly it is..

[4runr]

A stave is a split lengthwise from a log out of which you make a bow.

 

Here are two of them.

[AALLFAB]

It is a split or sawed  slice of whole natural wood to extract a bow from. Jim

[John Scifres]

"stave" just means a strip of wood that you make something from.  

A bow stave can be split or sawn.  It's simply a piece of wood you make a bow out of.

People often differentiate a stave bow as being made from a piece split out of a log from a board bow that comes from a sawn board.  But it doesn't have to be that way.

[Mike Most]

A stave is also full length for a bow, such as 70 inches or so, as opposed to a billet which is about half that length and needs to be spliced.

(with another billet)

[Eric Krewson]

A stave is your worst nightmare! You get one you will want two.

 

You get two you will want twenty.

 

And then there are the billets(short pieces you can splice together to make a bow).

 

It never ends!