Got some red oak staves...

[EdwardS]

https://imgur.com/gallery/bYcmvvn

Just cut this today, the left one has been debarked and gotten down to floor tiller.  The right one will get the same treatment tomorrow.  Also on tomorrow's agenda is cutting the remaining trunk to size and splitting it as well.

Feels good to get back to working-this disability thing is for the birds.

If all you have is a knife, a hatchet and needle files, how do you go about thinning a stave?  I can floor bend it but no more.  Any advice is appreciated.  This is my first stave and I would like to make something halfway shootable.

[Hawkdancer]

Knife can serve as a scraper, carefully, of course!  Also can be a draw knife, stick the point into a big cork or dowell, make cuts carefully of course!  I did 90% of the reduction on my hickory with a Buck hunting knife -bow turned out good, and I took the knife hunting and dressed out a deer, did have to tune the edge, however.  Since I have 2 Buck 119 knives, I may have mixed them up, but since the sheaths are different, I doubt it.  Patience, Grasshopper!  Good luck!
Hawkdancer

[Swampman]

A hatchet is a great tool to reduce a stave down to near bow dimensions.  With practice you will find a hatchet is a great bow making tool.  I have several i use fairly regularly. The key is to not try and remove too much material at once. Short, controlled strikes are what you want.

[bassman]

Ax, rasp, sharp knife, and sand paper, and cut your own wood will make you a good bow with very little invested.

[George Tsoukalas]

My last board bow, which  I made for a young man at church, was made with a draw knife, knife, rasp and sand paper. But I did use a table saw to rip the board. I also used a rope and pulley to tiller it.

I once made a bow with just stone tools so you don't need many tools.

Jawge