Bow-making Blunders

[Jim Davis]

You haven't made many bows if you have never cut a nock the wrong way....

But I wonder if some of those mistakes might have been avoided if certain beverages had not been imbibed.

[JW_Halverson]

You haven't made many bows if you have never cut a nock the wrong way....

But I wonder if some of those mistakes might have been avoided if certain beverages had not been imbibed.

I wish I had that excuse.

[JonW]

Had a bow on the tree. Backing up to start to pull on it and tripped and fell backwards pulling the bow to about 36 inches before it snapped.

[upstatenybowyer]

^ lol. Hope you were okay.

[Eric Krewson]

I think I have done this twice in my early days;

I had a very sharp drawknife  hanging over my workbench. Somehow I knocked it off its peg and reached out and snatched it out of the air as it went by, by the blade of course. Lots of blood on that move. One of those reflex moves without thinking.

I have taken the skin and flesh off the knuckles of my right hand on my belt sander more times than I could count. A 36 grit belt doesn't cut you any slack.

[sleek]

Cut towards my hand with my KaBar.  Trying to pry through a knot. The thought occured to me that I was being unsafe. As soon as the snynaptic gaps stopped firing the inevitable happened.  Index finge to the bone and chipped the bone.  Was deep in the country fishing with my boy for his birthday. I didnt wanma ruin his good time cause I was stupid so i super glued it, made a splint and left it be.. I was lucky enough to regain feeling after many months.

Had a few beers and operated a bandsaw, ruined the belly of the stave in the common way.

Bagged a ram once. Right in the sidewall. Arrow hit short of the target, skipped across my driveway, and imbeded into the sidewall of the  passenger tire of my dodge ram. Broad head did its job.

[ntvbowyer1969]

Breaking in a bow after finishing it I wasn't prepared for the flight it would take on first shot.I hit the top of the block target sailed the arrow through the window of the shed and went through the umbrella for the patio table.Everytime I look up at the umbrella on a cook out I think about that darn bow...lol I also have glued my fingers to many a bow with CA tite bond doing tip overlays.Me and my friend took out his fence cutting down a mulberry tree in his yard for bows.

[CB57]

Most recent bow is beautifully reflexed, horn tipped, made with a takedown sleeve...at maybe half the draw weight intended. Will make a perfect bow...for seven-year-old grandson. Well, I guess that will make me a cooler grandpa, hm?

[leonwood]

I've done the obvious ones: bending the recurve towards the belly, cutting the nocks the wrong way but also not mixing the two part epoxy long enough so it never dries and the worst ones, hurrying the tiller: decide you need to scrape the top limb but not mark it and then remove wood from the bottom limb. Or how about trying to remove a big piece of an ipé/boo limb with a drawknive and splitting the entire limb

[upstatenybowyer]

We should make a list of these so that new guys don't have to blunder quite as much as the rest of us. 

[Frodolf]

Haha! Some of those blunders are epic! My greatest blunder was probably when I thought I'd just "try out" my new belt sander on some scrap wood. Since I was only "trying it out" I didn't worry about putting it properly in the vice, or other safety measures, just put it on the floor. After trying it for a while I turned it off, but it took a few seconds to stop completely, and during those seconds I accidentally touched the belt with my left hand. Schoff! My pinky and ring finger got completely stuck and squeezed in the machine. Immense pain. I was alone, closest neighbor a mile away. Phone far away in the house.

I eventually managed to get into the house and call a friend right when I felt I was going to pass out. He came and gave me a lift to the ER. Walked in there with the machine and everything. They had to pry me loose with some serious pliers. By that time my fingers had been in there for over an hour and the pain when blood started coming back to my fingers again was unbearable. Morphine does help though.

Machines can be pure evil.

[Pat B]

Not a bow building blunder but years ago I got too close to an electric drill on high and got my beard caught in it...twice!     It sure took longer to get it out than in.   

[make-n-break]

My most common and irritating blunder is getting a bow to the final steps of finishing and while I'm smoothing out the edges of the limbs right before final sanding my cabinet scraper slips and puts a big gouge in the back. Happened more times than I want to admit.

Second thing that comes to mind was ruining a beautiful holey character Osage stave by forgetting about it on the stove, steaming away all the water and almost burning down my house. I was so excited about that stave too.

[osage outlaw]

When I first got started I cut a lot of osage so it could be seasoning.  I thought only the staves with thick rings and perfectly straight would work for bow making so I burnt everything else.  Hard telling how many staves I turned into ashes back then. 

[Jim Davis]

osage, you know all those twisty staves are actually out in my shed.......