JW, I should have included "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's bow", but I thought it unnecessary since we can have as many bows as we want. I guess I was wrong, you randy bugger...
Steve, keeping the bow surface in a near finished state and "cleaning up the bow" before you start is excellent advice. I've worked very hard to make these two rules second nature in my bow building. Now, if I could get good at predicting weight from a particular piece of wood, I'd be home free...
Lots of good points here. Maybe we could make "The 12 Points of Success for Bow Building"? When I suggested the commandments above, I intentionally left them vague and not too specific. I think I've seen the list of commandments that you mentioned at the beginning of this post but I can't remember who wrote them either.
How about,
Master the art of "training" the wood while it's drying? I've got a few bows in the preliminary drying stage right now and I have found that tying or clamping the stave to a form works a lot better than steaming or heat bending later. In the floor tillered state, I clamp the bow in various positions to take out the severe twists and bends. I leave the bow in each position for a few days and then check on the progress. Sometimes a bend will be corrected in a few days but sometimes it takes weeks.
I like the
Never be in a hurry commandment but this is made much easier if the person receiving the bow is also not in a hurry.
My number one rule has become,
Try and find the most perfect piece of wood to start with. This is what the ancient masters did and it saves more time and frustration than anything else I've ever tried.
