Oh, I feel pretty well hooked on this, so I'll definitely keep it up! But, I'm stubborn enough that I'm not giving up on this first one just yet: I'm determined to shoot it. If it explodes on draw, so be it -- the arrow will fall a few inches, at least. More bows will be made (many I hope), but this one will release one arrow before being retired to the wall. I want to see how far I can push this, and how much I can manage to fix. It's been a great learning experience so far; let's see what else I can learn from it. I hope to go to my uncle's farm in a couple weeks to cut a few hedgeapple staves, and maybe a walnut and sycamore or two.
Here's the progress on my pine bow repair, so far: