Suggestions for required reading.

[Johnny Reb]

Just curious what ya'll mite consider to be required read'n for the bow building ignorant       like me, books that offer good usable info, insight, tricks of the trade & the more "pitchers" the better.


Thanks in advance.

[Bowjunkie]

The best-suited answers will depend on what type of bow you're looking to build.

[Echatham]

"hunting the osage bow" -Dean Torges
"Traditional bowyer's bible" vol 1-4.
Tradgang bowyer's bench
Primitive Archer

[George Tsoukalas]

Comstock's The Bent Stick, TBB #1, Wilcox's the Art of Making Selfbows and Torges' Hunting the Osage Bow come to mind. Jawge

[Echatham]

the bent stick is next on my to read list

[monterey]

All four of the Traditional Bowyers Bible (TBB) volumes.

[T Callahan]

haha I think you can add this forum to your list of required reading. I spend alot of spare time scanning through posts that are several years old.There is ALOT of wisdom to be found on this site.

Aside from that I just finished reading all four TBB volumes. Def recommend it

[Johnny Reb]

Thanks for the input ya'll, wifeys want'n me to build a bookshelf to put all my stuff in anyway, sounds like these would make some great additions, I love to fabricate & really dig me some learn'n.

Have to say, this site has been a huge influence with me, since I first found it I've wanted to try & build a bow & have dug thru a lot of info & pics to get an idea of what & why,  I've put a lot of people interested in recurves & longbows onto this site because its such a resource for anything trad related & always tell them the local tribe here wont hesitate to go above & beyond to help a brother out.

Tg is a great site but ya'll are the reason why, thanks for the insight, info & patients.

[LittleBen]

Agreed, I frequently refer back to TBB, all four volumes on various topics.

I find no matter how my interests change in wood bows theres somethign in there to learn.

First it was board bows, then backed bows and laminated wood bows, Now starting to think about eastern woodland replicas and replica arrows ... it's all there ...

[Walt Francis]

My favorite books for all wood bows are, Hunting the Osage Bow by Torges (keep a copy out in my shop), The Bowyers Craft by Massey, and all four Bowyer's Bibles.  

For pure information on glass bows it's hard to beat Traditional Bowyer, More Unnecessary Fun, by Harrison.  I don't necessarily agree with his philosophy regarding something's, but if you can get past the dry parts it has something to learn for both the beginning bow builder and the seasoned bowyer.

All that said, the best information I have found anywhere is right here on the Bowyers Bench.

[Roy from Pa]

Walt said....

All that said, the best information I have found anywhere is right here on the Bowyers Bench.

I second that.

A bunch of us here have been where you are at now. Wanting to learn. Asking about books and knowledge. There is nothing better for knowledge than listing to what guys have been through. We made our mistakes, and we love helping others not to make the same mistakes. Ask all the questions you want here. Post pictures of what you need help with, and you will get a ton of perfect info...

[takefive]

X 2 on reading the Bowyers Bench.  The Bowyer's Bibles, The Bent Stick, and The Art of Making Selfbows are the ones I've read and reread and there is a ton of great information in them, but I didn't actually make a bow until I saw 4est Trekker's pyramid bow build along on the Bench a year ago.  Talk about too much information; I was overwhelmed by the books and unsure of just where to start.  Being able to follow that build along step by step (lots of pictures, too) was the only way for me to get started.  Ditto for the BBO and tri-lams I made later following Roy's posts.  I just finished a cherry bark backed mulberry bow for my daughter.  My interest in bark backing came from reading about it in one of TBB books, but when it came to actually doing it I was glad to find a post by Pat B. from a few years back and used his info for the glue up.  Can't beat the kind of specific information you can find on here.

[Johnny Reb]

+ one ,ore for the bowyers bench, I was just reading the post about the R/D bow a gent wants to make, & from the pics of the bow he's try'n for its gonna be a love machine.

I figured only a hi-tech fab shop could manufacture a bow like that, but some of the TG tribe had already had some food for thought for his build, the government should give grant money to this site for all the ongoing educational info that's given out, & the advise on here is all free for the ask'n.

[Eric Krewson]

For osage "Hunting The Osage Bow " by Torges is the gold standard of bow making books.

I am not so hung up on the TBB series, the first one was pretty good but as a whole they fill the pages with a lot of fluff to fill pages.

Watch every video on uTube about bow building you can stand. Like commercial videos, they all leave something out due to time constraints and editing but lumped together you can pick up some pretty good knowledge.

One thing about uTube videos, you will see a lot of different methods to make a bow, none are the gospel of bow making, the builders tend to make pretty crude but functional bows.

Your best teacher is experience. Get the basics down in your head and procede, don't expect a great bow on your first attempt, failure is part of the wood bow making process.

[Johnny Reb]

"Fluff" is one thing I hate in a book, very few nuggets of useable info in the fluff stuff, it waste time & is distracting, just the facts maam, all I want is the nuts & bolts.

Been check'n out some YT videos & did find some helpful videos, some not so much.

BOOKS :  I guess the "Hunting With The Osage Bow" is more for self & long bows ??

Which books offer info on what type of bow building ??