Time to stop shakin and start breakin'

[Onebowonder]

I aspire to fly high above the crowd with no "safety-net" or a backing on my bows as you ascribe, ...but then I look at the quivering little piece of wood that I put SOOOOOO much time and effort into cutting, hauling back to the house, splitting out properly into staves, drying for nearly a year, and I instinctually reach for the backing materials and the glue bottle.  I'm a coward when it comes to bending wood.  It had just as well be said.  I don't like things that go BOOM on my tillering tree and make me feel like I need to urgently pee!  I overbuild stuff because I'm afraid of the failure that might come if I don't.   ...and yes I hear all the "It's just a piece of wood" and "...so make another one" comments and I understand they are coming from a genuinely charitable place in the heart of bowyers that have been there and done that, BUT - this is MY piece of wood, and I worked hard to make this ONE succeed.  I enjoy the process as much as the next guy, ...but I really like it all to work out in the end too!  I frequently try bows outside of my comfort zone, ...but the temptation to overbuild sneaks in as I work on it.

So, I back bows that probably don't really need it.  I reinforce tips that would likely make it just fine with out the help.  I build 'em longer than necessary so there is more wood to share the work.  I tiller an inch past the point I mean for the bow to be full drawn.  ...and my bows will probably never approach the narrow edge of high end performance that they might otherwise have attained.  I'm a coward bowyer.  <sigh>



OneBow

[Badger]

 Onebow, your thought reminds me of something I often think about. Sometimes I will have a perfect stave that was maybe gifted to me, other times I will have a marginal stave that I have a ton of time and work invested in harvesting, sometimes I may have paid too much for a stave on e ebay and it really isnt worth what I paid etc. Once I go to work on a stave I forget all about the history of where it came from. I tend to approach them all the same. If I have 8 hours tied up in a bow and I screw something up I won't spend another 8 hours trying to fix something I never will be quite happy with anyway. Kind of hard to explain but I take the attitude that it is what it is, no matter how I feel about it I can't change what it is. Enjoy the process and the journey and it is always a win win situation when making a bow, a good outcome is the bonus and the carrot on the stick we are always chasing.

[BOWMAN53]

practice on some hickory boards

[DuBois]

Hey, thanks fellas. You are the best bunch of folks I never met 

I'm not so much worried about gettin hit by flying chunks (not that smart).  I've just noticed that the more time I put into one the more cautious I become about messin it up. Kinda like Onebow said escept I gradually become a coward bowyer 

I have had fun doing all the backings but I just think I got the cart before the horse and need to work on the basics for quite a while first.

_{(silk backed mulberry trade bow in progress excluded from this post)}

[Gsulfridge]

These wives.... they ask you to do something and if you don't get it done fast enough, they nag you every 6 months about it!!! 

Hilarious!!!

[Pappy]

Onebowonder,nothing wrong with that at all,I tend to overbuild and not push the envelope to far myself,just general do it with an air backing.  I am about like Steve,it is what it is and if it don't work out like I want/weight/tiller I usually won't spend a lot of time trying to fix it,a little wrap here and there or maybe pike it a bit for weight or some heat tweaking for alignment but that's about as far as it goes.  That is why this hobby /addiction is so cool. To each their own. 
 Pappy

[Joec123able]

I've only backed one bow for whatever reason I just like the idea of just the wood and nothing else just seems as pure as it gets

[PrimitiveTim]

I think it's great!  A foundation is always critical and going back to the basics of bow building will help give a good foundation.

[DuBois]

Yeah Tim, I don't think I took enough time on foundation. Went a lttle crazy when I saw all the cool stuff being made on here.