Life Bookends

[Urufu_Shinjiro]

I've always been interested in history, medieval, renaissance, etc. as long as I can remember (must be in the blood, Dad's a Civil War reenactor) when the other kids were playing with toy guns I had stick for a sword or a curved stick for a bow etc. When I was maybe 9-10 like a lot of kids that age I wheedled the parental units into getting one of those red fiberglass kids bows. Oh man that was the best, shot all kinds of things in the back yard, foam, milk jugs, etc. Well some friends and I were playing with the bow one day shooting it in the air, now I wasn't dumb, in fact I've always been smarter than the average bear (they didn't call it aspergers back then, you were just too smart for your breeches and socially weird, lol) so I knew full well about ballistics so we weren't shooting it straight up but just a little forward and short drawing it so much it only went about 15 feet up and ten feet forward, but it was fun. Fun until someone (might have been me, I don't recall anymore, lol) stumbled when shooting and the arrow flew down the block, we all watched in horror as it landed in a neighbors hard at the other end of the block, right in front the neighbors lawnmower, while he was mowing the lawn!!!! Well needless to say that was the end of my archery days for many a year. I discovered an entire worldwide organization of history nerds like me in my late teen years, the Society for Creative Anachronism, and learned the rapier and dagger, and did that for years, no idea why it never occurred to me to go back to archery when archery was going on at every SCA event but one day I was at the Atlanta Renn Fair and fell in love with this fiberglass scythian style horsebow, covered in black leather with white stitching on the back, and suddenly the archery bug bit me again. Paid way too much money for that bow and shot the heck out of in the back yard, made myself a thumb ring out of PVC pipe and have since upgraded bows several times and certainly upgraded my technique (I can actually do khatra now, lol) and soon I was so into the archery that I put down the sword and dagger. I found this site through Dbars Home Depot arrow build along and been here learning ever since!.

[jeffp51]

That arrow build along is what led me here too.  when I was about 8, I really wanted a .22 like my friend's.  My parents got me a little green fiberglass bow instead.  I shot the heck out of that bow.  I still  have it, and my kids shot it until I made them wooden ones.  When I was 11, I had a scout leader who taught me  a little about flint knapping--I would shoot them and break off the arrow below the point, then rehaft until the arrows were too short to shoot.  I still have some of them around too--They were with my green bow at my parents house.

When I outgrew that bow, I didn't really shoot anymore until I got into primitive archery.  My son started building a bow for an archery merit badge.  It looked like so much fun I decided I wanted to help the kids and give it a go myself. So I started looking into youtube videos, and I got hooked.  I watched a buch of the boarrior bows how-to's, and a few others, and I eventually finished a hickory board bow, which broke after about 200 shots.  But by then it was too late for me.  I went to buy some arrows and went into shock over how much they cost, so I started looking for a way make my own.  that is how I found this place. Next thing I know I am looking for trees to cut down, buying a draw knife, and building my own shave horse.