I've made a mistake

[stone_huntsman]

I was working on a new osage bow for myself last night and it was going great until I made one mistake that was very disappointing. I'll go through my thought process before the mistake.

 I got it shaped out looking good, I chased a ring and man it looked beautiful. I was thinking "This is my bow I'm making it for me just the way I want it it's going to be awesome." There was one place where there was a little big damage, but no big deal, it's on the back near the tip where it's not going to bend anyways so I filled it with glue and some real fine saw dust easy fix. Then there was another small bug hole on the belly and I have seen where people have used turquoise to fill in small knot holes so I decided that's what I will do there. It should look really pretty. Then once everything was ready I decided shape the handle a little and cut in the arrow rest.

Now I look the bow over and decide which is going to be my top and bottom limbs and pick where I should make the arrow rest and I get to cutting. I get it cut out shape it up real nice, it looks good. My bow is going to be awesome. My best bow by far I can already tell. Then I look, oh no, what have I done.  I cut the arrow rest to where it's for a left handee and I'm right handed. I just sat it in the corner after a few words of regret and pain over how dumb and carries away I got.   

I thought I would share with you guys and see if you ever done something like this and if I could still shoot it accurately. It's kinda of funny now I figure I can shoot it of my thumb side like some of the Asian composite shooters. But it did make me sad till I went to bed.

[Bogaman]

I'm a southpaw. Just ship it to me;^)

[Marks]

Would it be possible to turn it upside down and cut another arrow rest on the other end of the handle?

[wizardgoat]

to me its bad mojo to carve the handle (other than making it flat for your tiller), to carve nice tips, or name it, or even call it a bow yet haha.
for me, i dont like to pick the top or bottom limb until i see how it tracks at first brace.  you dont want to put all that work in to
have the stave explode at some point during tillering.
you should upload some pics of the handle section so we can see what your dealing with

[scp]

That's one of the reason I don't cut an arrow rest anymore and just make it shootable from both sides. If I really want, I can always glue on a small piece of wood, leather, or whatever on whichever side I want for the rest.

You can glue on the cut off piece or a small piece of wood shaped to fit and wrap the handle with leather or something. Good luck.

[PatM]

Consider your lesson learned. A selfbow should never have a shelf. 

[Don Case]

Sounds like something I would have done. From now on whenever you are going to cut a notch- go have a cup of coffee.

[Slackbunny]

That's one of the reason I don't cut an arrow rest anymore and just make it shootable from both sides. If I really want, I can always glue on a small piece of wood, leather, or whatever on whichever side I want for the rest.

You can glue on the cut off piece or a small piece of wood shaped to fit and wrap the handle with leather or something. Good luck.

That is what I would do. Glue it back up, maybe put a dowel through it. Then, when you finish the bow, you can just put a handle wrap on that will cover up all the ugliness.

[paoliguy]

I did that same thing recently. Turns out a friend at church was left handed and interested in bows. Now I have one more bow's worth of experience AND someone to shoot with!

[stone_huntsman]

It's all part of my learning experience and it's good to learn from my mistakes.  Every time I make a bow I know from past mistakes don't do what you did wrong last time. So from now on I will check and make sure I'm not doing something stupid.

[Onebowonder]

It's a sign.  Some left handed friend somewhere must need a new bow...

OneBow

[Slackbunny]

It's a sign.  Some left handed friend somewhere must need a new bow...

OneBow

Just tell them to stop being so contrary and use the correct hand 

[PatM]

 Or you could shoot with a thumb ring.

[tallpine]

Don't sweat it, its all part of the learning curve. On one of my first bows I cut the string nocks in backwards. These kinds of mistakes you only make once. I'm sure you can salvage it, that's another aspect of bow building, covering up your screw-ups.

[Crogacht]

If it were me (and it might be yet ) I would continue with it, make an amazing bow and give it to a left handed friend