When you don't have a vice/Bowers bench

[gfugal]

I sit on mine on a chair in the kitchen!  Put a towel on the chair under the stave to protect the bow and another on top to protect your @$$!  Then I work one side at a time.

I've done this too. Works with draw knife okay but limits your strokes to only one direction (towards you) unless you push the blade but that isn't as effective. Sitting on it works great for scraping though, fastest and easiest way I think unless you had something like a shave-horse.

[gfugal]

An 8-foot 2X10, a few three-inch screws and a used vise off Craigslist would get you a very useful bench that will hold your work firmly -- AND SAFELY. It would be $30-$35 well spent.

What about the weight issue? He doesn't have a heavy table that won't move if he clamps a board and vise on it. Maybe if you sit on it while it's on the ground but that doesn't sound the most comfortable. I've been playing with the idea of clamping a board with a vice screwed on it to a table too. But my table is also light and would still move. I've been wondering if I attached strong paracord to the board that the vice is clamped to, if I could then use it like a stirrup similar to a shave horse if that would keep the table in place.

We've been renters and moving around alot for work, only so much I can do for a workshop. Compound that with my delusion that I'm "going to take a break after I finish this bow" I've yet ro get or make a more permanent bench.

What I've been using is a large plastic bucket filled with 50#-ish of play sand from a certain large chain hardware store.  Cost was under $10 for the sand and 18 years of stinky cat poop for the bucket.  Then I put a small board over the lid (or the lid will smash down) and using para cord lashed on a drill vice (vice was about $20 from same store).  You need a hand cranky lever thingy to really tighten up the para cord (and I have no idea what the technical term is).

Wife loves the portability and that I can make messes in any room in the home .

I also wonder if 50# is enough weight to keep it from moving when you're using heavy strong pulls with the draw knife. Have you found that is enough weight, or maybe you don't use it with a draw knife?

I also struggle with the original poster's situation so I'm curious.

[Springbuck]

 Outside, I adjust wood removal techniques a bit and rest one end on a big chopping block log section.  You can also tie on a cross piece to one limb and use the fork of a tree as a toggle vise.

[Mesophilic]

I also wonder if 50# is enough weight to keep it from moving when you're using heavy strong pulls with the draw knife. Have you found that is enough weight, or maybe you don't use it with a draw knife?

I also struggle with the original poster's situation so I'm curious.

No, for heavy strokes it will move around the floor quite a bit.  I just sit on it and work the draw knife toward myself.   Now thst the weather is warming up, I'll go outside and clamp a stave to the patio railing for the heavy work.

[gifford]

I'll echo a few other posters. Build a bow bench. aka one board, cut by lumberstore if you don't have a saw, hammer/nails or drill driver and screws, a vise (cheap or expensive the stave doesn't care) secured by lag screws. You are in business.

Safe, cheap, and best of all multi-use. Did I say safe, when you're drawknifing a stave, you want a stable platform. Stiches get expensive quick.

 The board doesn't have to be perfect, just outside grade, check the cull pile I always do. Built two bow benches for less than 10 bucks by using cull pile lumber. I already had the screws and the drill driver, but my first one was nailed, yep I had a hammer and nails already.