why do you build bows?

[Sixby]

Well thats a long story. I have always loved working with wood and doing fancy stuff. Inlay work, carving , checkering ect. I built a ton of custom rifles.

I've always had to have a hobby  with a creative bent. Usually I achieved the top level and then lost interest in making it full time. But with the rifles I still had the interest but just not the time and place.

I entered into the building businesss and formed a large company and ended up with my nose on the grindstone. My hobbyturned to fine art and I painted oils and acrylic and watercolors and got really good at it. Won a lot of awards and sold a lot of paintings.

All this time I was a dyed in the wool bowhunter. I bought a lot of really nice bows,. owned and operated an archery shop at the same time and shot pro staff for Goden Circle. I burned out and realized I was not enjoying archery the way I had when I was younger. When I was shooting a longbow. That year I called in a bull and killed it with a stick and string and a well placed arrow.

I was an addict again. I got my groove back. I bought a really nice Morrison and ended up in some business financial difficultie4s and had to sell my bows.

When things turned arround for me and God blessed me to have some relief I took the tools I had and started trying to make bows. I was making lam bows and getting them almost built and breaking them. Nine in a row to be exact. I was building really beautiful bows too but did not understand tension and compression well. I could get the most perfect arc and boom the thing would break.

I would take the pieces and walk in the house and my wife would say. Oh! no you broke another one.
I just kept going back and trying/ Finally It happened. I got a bow. It shot an arrow. Now I had made yew bows before and they worked great but this was the first lam bow I had ever made. 9 broken bows and finally. Wow

 I wanted in the worst way to build a glass bow but had no idea in the world how to start. So when I heard of Binghams . ordered the tape and the rest is history. I never used a Binghams plan though. I started right off the bat with a design of my own.

Here is how I got it./ I had a dream from God. He showed me an eagle flying through some woods and He spoke to me to build a bow with the shape of the eagle. I did and the first EagleWing was born. It shot awsome then and it shoots awsome now.

I have learned a lot and tweaked it a bunch but the inspiration and teaching has come from above. When I have had a problem I have prayed and God showed me how to deal with it. He showed me how to improve and even gave me more designs.


I absolutely love doing this. More than anything I have ever done. I am not sure that I can explain it. Perhaps Dick is better at explaining that than I am. Butttttttttt. This stuff gets in the blood and its there. I learn every day and I love that part of it.

 God has shown me things I did not understand and then he taught me to understand it. That is something awsome. Everyone of my bows gets built as unto the Lord and with him right there. How could I fail?

God Bless you all, Steve

[Roy from Pa]

Steve, exactly:) Roy

I learn every day and I love that part of it. I do not believe the best bow has been built by anyone. Its still out there and I want to find it.
And I found a great piece of wood the other day:)


 

[Sixby]

Wow, I guess I wasn't supposed to delete that part. LOL (grin)

That is really cool Roy.

[Loren Holland]

When i was 5, my dad showed me how to tie a noose, spit, and quickdraw...at that point i thought i knew everything i needed to know.  fortunately for me, my dad never kept teaching me that you always need to know something else...

no matter what i do, i want to truly understand it, and master it

when i got tired of filling my tag with a rifle, i bought and old bear wheel bow from a pawn shop (i think burt reynolds used it in a movie, lol) and learned its idiosynchracies...everntually i took my love of creating and building and curiousity of how things work and joined them into building a bow and not just shooting something i bought

my perfect hunting season will be when i take a deer each in muzzle loader and archery season with a weapon of my own construction and clean it with a knife i made

[Sidewinder]

Great question.I have always made a living in sales and had never really ever made anything with my hands. I was contemplating the condition of the world and how vulnerable the current economic system is and I knew I needed to learn to make something useful with my hands and hand tools, the old fashioned way. I prayed about it and forgot about it. Sometime after that I was looking at a survival book and I saw the survival bow. I thought, "now that sounds cool" so I attempted to make one with a sapling and my knife. I shaved on that thing every evening for a least a week. It still would'nt bend very much. I thought there has to be more information out there about this, so I did a search online and I found Primitve Archer and then after that I found paleo planet. I am new here but I have been on this path now for 4yrs now. I have learned much and know that I still have much more to learn. I too am addicted. I love it and I like to tell people that it was my answer to a mid life crisis, but I think ultimatley it was Gods answer to my prayer because it has blessed me emensely in ways I can't even try and explain. It is without a doubt excellent for the mind body and spirit. Its jsut too bad more people don't have a hobby that is both practical and artistic.  Danny

[fish n chicks]

Originally posted by Johan van Niekerk:
Same reason my dog licks its own b***s. Because I CAN   :D  

Well that's what I was gonna say, but in not so many words    

[PEARL DRUMS]

Because I tried it once.........97% of people who try it once are addicted. I just cope with it and try to get through each day without gluing another up.

[canopyboy]

I answered quickly at first, but after reading some more responses I put my finger on it.  While the first bow was because I needed one and wanted to see if I could do it, since then it's been a belief that THE NEXT ONE WILL BE BETTER.

And the dog licking himself applies too.

[hova]

Originally posted by canopyboy:
I answered quickly at first, but after reading some more responses I put my finger on it.  While the first bow was because I needed one and wanted to see if I could do it, since then it's been a belief that THE NEXT ONE WILL BE BETTER.

And the dog licking himself applies too.

I see what you did there. thats the essence of it in a nutshell...

the camaraderie is a big part too...

[red hill]

Some really good answers here.  I had been trying to make a bow off and on for several years without any true success.  When a young student teacher told me about the Same Harper build-along and I found a connection to TG, things turned around.  
The virtual camaraderie is a big part like you say, hov.

[Keenan]

More me it started with a heart dream to take an elk with all hand made gear, bow, arrow and flint knapped point, from there an incredible transformation took place as I would work down a stave, I would see how much like people, each stave was. On the outside they often seem rough or just a little plain, yet when you get under the bark and start peeling off the layers, you really start to see the incredible beauty in each one of them. Often it is the harshness of life that builds in the most incredible character.  On top of that there is just something magical, that happens when you hand someone a nice bow.
 In the process it seems impossible to work a stave or chip some flakes on a point without just melting away into the most relaxing peace. It really is more theraputic then I ever imagined.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

The thing i like most about it is building bows is as simple as you want to make it, or as challenging as anything you've ever done in your life.

Some guys prefer a draw knife and a stave and savor the journey and the process as much as getting an end product. every piece of wood has different character and different challenges. ya gotta love that...

on the other hand you can take glass and composite bow building to unbelievable extremes. The intricate details in balancing and blue printing a new design to higher and higher levels of performance and smoothness, is incredibly satisfying to me...

The best part of either way you go... its NEVER boring if you put your heart into it.

[hova]

well said kirkll... i think if this was a simpler time in the span of humans  , we would be an unstoppable , well fed , highly advanced group of archers.

[b.glass]

I want to read all these posts but first I want to give my unbiased reasons.

I like the look of wood. Wood floors, wood furniture, turned bowls... I like the different species and what makes them unique. I like learning about primitive living and challenges and living in nature as a participant. So making wood bows was kinda a natural progression of all these things combined.

[Dmaxshawn]

I'm addicted to it.
The enjoyment from harvesting an animal with a weapon that I made.
Gifts for friends
it pays for a few tools
Now it pays for all my hunting

[SEMO_HUNTER]

Originally posted by DVSHUNTER:
I really wanted a custom bow, but couldn't afford one, so I figured I make one. They don't get anymore custom than that.

Where we seperated at birth? Cause you have got to be my twin.

I had always wanted an old school all wood longbow, but couldn't afford one since being layed off for 2 years now. Odd jobs here and there just barely keep up with the bills, but leaves nothing extra for luxuries.
So I decided to build my own. In my search for a good bow wood to use I found out that Osage (hedge) was one of the best and it just so happens that it's plentiful all around me.....lucky me!

I went out and cut my own logs, split it into staves, and made a bow just armed with info I found on the internet and from that my first longbow was a reality. I was so happy that I accomplished something that seemed almost impossible to me, and it really shot great.

After that I was hooked and now I just can't stop.
It's been over 6 months now and I'm still going strong with no signs of giving it up anytime soon.
I'm happy when I'm working on a piece of wood and miss it when I'm not. I dream about bows I want to make and eager to get out of bed in the morning to get started on my projects. That's a good thing, cause I could just as easily got depressed and gave up, but the Osage keeps me going.

I also enjoy cutting Osage and working it up into staves, so I started selling them and that has also turned into an obsession.....but it's a good one because it helps me afford the other stuff I need to feed my addiction.

Sorry so long, but one sentence just wasn't going to be enough to explain it.

[wildcat hunter]

I like to punish myself! I like all wood bows - no glass, so I glue lams on limbs and risers of Walnut, Osage, cedar, Cherry, etc. Broke a lot, the last 2 of 5! I know what I'm doing wrong ( limbs too thick ),I've been tillering and then gluing on the lams and then I don't want to thin the limbs down and lose the lam. soooo - I have to back off a bit!

[GREG IN MALAD]

Quite simply, I enjoy building things. Although I tell most people that my court appointed therapist recommended it as a way to keep me out of public.

[wpflbow]

I always had an interest in archery, never followed it until about 3 months ago. Got a bug...

1. I wanted a traditional bow
2. I am left handed
3. I couldn't find anything local.

While surfing the net, I happened upon a couple of articles on bow building, and downloaded a plan for a flat bow (circa 1950's).  Went to Home Depot and came home with two boards, a red oak and a poplar.  Tried the poplar first, breaking it during the build (big surprise looking back) then built one from the red oak, and it actually worked!

I got the bug and now have my first laminated (bamboo flooring and red oak) takedown recurve assembled, tillered and test fired.  It is not perfect, certainly not in the same league as many of the fine bows I see on this forum.  But, it really zips the arrows into the target! A little final finishing work and I'm done...with that one. I carved a self bow from a 5" diameter bamboo log that works surprisingly well, and also have two more bows in the works, waiting for more time. I am hopelessly hooked!