I hate it when!!!

[IndianGuy]

Man I see all these awesome bows made from beautiful natural materials and someone spray's a clear coat finish or lacquer on them! what a waste!...The "shine" to me looks awefull, besides you can get the same effect by taking a smooth stone or piece of antler and rubbing the wood while pressing down, this will compress the fibers and make the wood shine, finished off with some good old lemon oil and you cant beat it!
When you seal a bow with a sealant it can't breath a bow needs to be able to breath, taking in some moisture and letting some out with the change of the seasons. The occasional oiling will make it weather resistant enough to use year around.

Just my opinion.

Indianguy

[PrimitiveTim]

I kind of like your opinion.  I wouldn't say I hate modern finishes though.  We are making primitive things in a modern era so it's to be expected.  When someone puts a lot of time and energy into making something so beautiful it makes sense that they want it to be protected well. 

What is the benefit of allowing the bow to breathe?  Can you not shoot a bow that was sealed in humid time during a dry time or vice versa?

[Dictionary]

+1 to what Tim said.

Also..I don't think even modern finishes seal out(or seal in) all moisture....the wood will always be allowed to "breathe" a bit. Correct me if im wrong here.


I don't mind the modern finishes much although I do prefer to see a more natural finish used. My last two bows, I've just been using wax and vegetable oil simply because I didn't care to go out and buy a commercial finish. Different strokes...

[Roy]

Last thing I want is my bow absorbing moisture.

[IndianGuy]

PT, I never seal a bow up, in my opinion and this is just my opinion I do not want my bows to completely dry out and if they are sealed they can dry out, it might take a while if the bow had a descent moisture content when sealed but it will eventually dry out , and can become brittle over time and break. I have friends that make bows as well and several seal their bows, they have also had some (not all)  of their sealed bows break with no explanation at all. I think this is due to the bows moisture content getting to zero. This might start a debate but I think a bow should have a small amout of moisture retained in the wood at all times and by not sealing the bow this allows the bow to breath however the oiling will prevent to much moisture from entering the wood. And yes I think that is very important to long bow life.
Again jmo.

Indianguy

[PEARL DRUMS]

I absolutely love my shiney urethane covered bows.

[vinemaplebows]

I have never done this but will try it soon....I was think of boot paste for water sealing, we have several different brands out here on the west coast, some with mink oil.

VMB

[Joec123able]

I don't agree I'd rather use a modern finish to be sure my bow will be sealed from the elements and will be durable against moisture that's just my opinion plus I like the shine

[ionicmuffin]

i like the shine of tru oil, thats the only modern finish i like. the rest i would prefer grease from an animal or something like that.

[IndianGuy]

Might as well add some carbon arrows with plastic veins to the mix!         LOL!

[SLIMBOB]

I think there is some merit to what you are saying.  My first 3 or 4 bows got no finish on them at all, and the couple I still have are fine.  Now they are Bodark, so moisture uptake is not as big a concern as white woods, and I live in the great state of Texas where Bow season in Oct. can look a lot like Aug.  hot and dry, so that has to be considered.  My buddy tipistuff has never to my knowledge put a finish on any bow he's ever made (gotta be in the hundreds) and again, they all still shoot 20 years later.  I finish all of mine now.  No particular reason other than I like the look.

[IndianGuy]

Ionicmuffin I use to rub filtered bacon grease on my bows but dang it if I wouldnt get in my stand to hunt and get to smelling that and get hungry every time, thats why I switched to lemon oil.

[osage outlaw]

I think different styles of bows deserve different types of finishes.  A more modern style of bow like a recurved american flatbow style with snake skins looks great all shined up with some tru-oil.  And a Native American style bow deserves a hand rubbed grease finish. Modern style=modern finish, Primitive style=primitive finish.  Just my opinion. 

[ionicmuffin]

that makes sense outlaw
I dont think i could stand the smell of bacon while hunting lol

[Weylin]

A couple thoughts. I'm no chemist so I'm just going off of the conventional wisdom that I have absorbed from other knowledgeable folks but my understanding is that there is no sealer primitive or modern that truly stops moisture exchange. If you have a bow in high RH it will raise it's moisture content to match, the finish only slows down the process. If it's dry then the same thing will happen in reverse but the bow will always change to eventually match the RH regardless of the finish. I think the bigger 'modern' culprit in drying out and breaking bows is AC and forced air heat.

My other thought is about how we view the work that we do and that others do. All these distinctions that we make about primitive and modern are fairly arbitrary and if we wanted to get really critical about it we wouldn't really have a community to speak of. Unless we are making our bows and arrows with locally sourced stone and bone tools from local wood that we harvested with said stone tools and not using a single modern material or convenience then we are all "guilty" of short cuts. I don't mind drawing a few basic distinctions so that we know that we are all talking about basically the same thing (i.e. PA limiting the discussion to bows who's working parts are made from natural materials) but beyond that I see it doing more harm than good. Of course you're entitled to you opinion on what's more appealing to you and what you view as more effective and of course this forum is a good place to discuss those ideas but be careful about being too dismissive because we are all in this for slightly different reasons and get different things out of the bows that we make use and share.