Bowaholics Support Thread

[RidgeRunner]

Dr. Keenan:
My name is David I am totaly addicted to Bow-Building.
It all started when I was just a child of 7 or 8.  I was first introduced to this by my Daddy.  We were poor and he made me a hickory stick bow and a set of arrows for my birthday.
I have been hooked ever since.  I chased every chicken, cat, stray dog and my sister until she and everthing else as well ran when they saw me.  This addiction has been growing ever since.  But lately it has gotten much worse!
Saturday I went out on a total binge.  I almost did not survive.
It went on for hours.  I returned to it so many times that soon it was all I could do just to walk.  The worst part is that I lured another man half-way across the county to the same binge. He is (well was anyway) a fine family man.  His profession is to bring good, clean, reliable sources of drinking water to peoples homes.  What more noble profession is there.   But I lured him away from his job with a promise of pure Alabama Gold.  It was his first dose of such pure stuff.  When he left about an hour before dark his eyes were glassed over.  He had a 50 or so mile drive ahead of him and I feared that he would be pulled over for DWO.  "Driving with Osage"  I also feared that some other addicted person might try to knock him off and take his supply.  Dr. Keenan,  Is there hope for me?   Can I have a normal life?  Why cant I just set and watch TV like everone else?

David   

[Keenan]

 David,  You can still learn from this situation.  :oThe best part is that your have recegnized that your addit=ction has caused another to stumble. It's often the case that our addiction affects everyone around us. The numbers of the influence is growing at an alarming rate
  Your case is the same story that has been played out for generations. The father figure has had a dramatic influence on the impressionable mind of the child. The pull of this cycle is so strong that few ever break the cycle.
  DWO (Driving with osage) is a serious situation and can lead to MOPB ( Manufacture of Primitive Bows) . Soon poeple are out of control turning thier basement and garages into wood shops. In some cases the addiction is so bad the supplies have even been seen on the kitchen table and in the living room around the children.
  As people come forward I'm sure we will be shocked as to the extent of the epidemic. I will keep this updated on our findings. For now I encourage you to support your friend. He needs your support and could possibly slip into withdrawl in left alone

[sailordad]

   Dr.Keenan,
my name is Tim, and i have a problem. i am addicted to bow building. i havent had this affliction all that long but it seems to be geting worse everyday.
it all started with a boo/ipe elb kit i purchased on line. well one thing led to another and i purchsed some OSAGE from another addict
 ( to remain nameless for now) well he was more that generous and sent along an extrasliver of oasge to practice chasing a ring with and make into a kids bow.
now every tree i look at all i see is bows,bows and more bows. i look at a bush and all i can see are arrows. now all i want is OSAGE and nothing else seems to satisfy anymore. i still use hickory and others as i can find it but thtas rare here right now. but i still try to buy on line when the money is availible to me.
my wife does nothing to help me,she seems to encourage my addiction by telling me it will be ok,just go downstairs and work on a bow for a little while.
now all i can think of is who wantsme to make them a bow and where can  get staves at.
i think i am a junky now.
 is there any possible hope for me?

well i goota get into my man cave now, i NEED a fix real bad man,cant take it any longer,goota go scrape on the little sliver of a stave for awhile.
please help.

                                                                        tim

[Keenan]

 Tim,  We've found that often when a spouse is encouraging your addiction and useage there is almost always an underlined motive. It may be that she has a habit of her own that she is wanting to explore or has already ventured into.This can be a go thing and help her to understand your cravings.However caution should be used as this can lead to the clasic senario of  ( if yoyr buying more bows stuff then I'm getting,,,,,,,,)  If this cycle starts it's best to use the reverse psychology method and buy her stuff first. ;DThen well you get the idea. 

  As we can clearly see this is a real condition. Few have ever stopped at just one bow. And as JJ and others have stated, it often leads into a full blown addiction that encludes arrow manufacturing, flint knapping, and weekend getaways that include livig in teepee's and wearing animal skins.

[Ryano]

I was sitting in my lazy boy the other night, holding my most recent piece of work on my lap admiring the the sexy curves and pointy tips. When my wife interupted my train of thought by saying "what are you doing? Do you love that bow or something?" I was almost at a loss for words, No, no honey its not what you think I replied...........I think I got it bad. 

[Keenan]

 Ryano,Take a lead from Bill Cosby,,,"I did made it for You"      Follow up with,  "notice the sexy curves just like you". If that dosen't work, You going to have to go for broke and pull out all the hard core tactics.  Pick out your best stave and ask for her help with it.

[uwe]

My name is Uwe and I`m very sick with bows. I hope to read all of these answers in this thread some day, but now I have to go into the workshop again, cause my bowlevel is extremely flat now. I can`t put my finersdfgnbej no more corjhfjghertly on thhjfjjjnbdv lettersdjekgjfvnjs. I  ustm og won rfo orwking won...

[Keenan]

    Back at ya.

[radius]

Keenan,

My name is Scott and I've got it bad:  i'm a bowmakin' fool and i can't think of nothing else.  I don't have a proper workshop, so when I wake up it's to the site of a 6x8 tarp spread on my bedroom floor with bowforms, glues, clamps, inner tube straps, a bench plane, and right now, two giant hunks of yew.  I wake, make coffee, and carry my tools out to my makeshift bench under the landlord's deck.  Then I spend several hours cutting, sanding, rasping, shaving, dreaming, imagining, testing, flexing, cleaning up shavings and dust, measuring...

i spend money on wood and glue when I should buy new pants and shoes because my clothes are reverting to a primitive state.  Soon my toes'll be poking out, but hey, it's gonna be summer soon:  who cares?  And when the knees on these jeans go:  shorts, no problem.  I look for work but say, "I can't start til the day after tomorrow..."  i spend too much time on the computer reading about bows, how they're made, checking out other people's failures and mistakes...women call me and send me messages, they say, "YOu're so hot, you got it goin on!"  I'm like, "Whatever, I'm busy..."

But i'm cool with it.  I like making bows...beats drinking all the time!

[Keenan]

Just keep telling yourself that   "your fine it's the rest of the world thats messed up" 

[DanaM]

I know a couple of southern good ol boys that are in severe denial Haven't seen them step forward
yet and admit to their severe addiction. These guys are so horribly addicted that they formed a club,
built workshops & shooting ranges. Then they get together most week ends and play with their toys
cook tons of food. Then come monday morning they post pictures of their decadent lifestyle.
Worst of all they are enablers always luring new victims in with promises of southern hospitality and food,
then if ya can believe it, every May they host a three day convention of Bowaholics
Do you think their is any help for these guys???

[juniper junkie]

David,  You can still learn from this situation.  :oThe best part is that your have recegnized that your addit=ction has caused another to stumble. It's often the case that our addiction affects everyone around us. The numbers of the influence is growing at an alarming rate
  Your case is the same story that has been played out for generations. The father figure has had a dramatic influence on the impressionable mind of the child. The pull of this cycle is so strong that few ever break the cycle.
  DWO (Driving with osage) is a serious situation and can lead to MOPB ( Manufacture of Primitive Bows) . Soon poeple are out of control turning thier basement and garages into wood shops. In some cases the addiction is so bad the supplies have even been seen on the kitchen table and in the living room around the children.
  As people come forward I'm sure we will be shocked as to the extent of the epidemic. I will keep this updated on our findings. For now I encourage you to support your friend. He needs your support and could possibly slip into withdrawl in left alone

there is a much more serious infraction that is: DWLFO (driving while looking for osage) that is much more dangerous in that it distracts the driver to stare at trees along the roadside, causing him to lose focus on driving his vehicle. often escalates into the driver stopping his vehicle and running into the woods with a saw in a almost hypnotonic state! not pretty this ugly disease also spreads to other flora  such as wild rose, very disturbing

[Keenan]

  Dana; Be very carefull, We've been watching those to for some time and we are fairly sure they are heavy suppliers and are ring leaders.  This type can often become very paranode and go into crazed hysteria killing the surounding animals  by the droves and having sacrificial meals even. We are fairly certain that much of the food they eat is from the unlucky that have wandered into thier path.
 You are right about the yearly gathering. I've heard it's similar to woodstock with tents everywhere and people runing around in animal skins. Many that have gone have never been the same. We sent a spy but the last we heard was that he had a bow pledging an allegence to the brotherhood with all thier names on it. He seems to have won thier support but we fear he has been comprimised. 
 
 JJ You are so right DWLFO is a serious problem. Some have even drove right off the road looking at trees   (If you repeat that to my wife I will no longer be able to go out to play) But an even more serious situation happens when two or even three are in the same truck  and they are all looking and shouting when they see something All of the sudden thier are three of them running into the woods with saws and all thinkng the other person was driving.
  This always leads to a serious overloading of a vehicle to the point that a driver barely has rome to drime an the (Honda Fit) is saging seriously in the tail end.

[Dustybaer]

WHO YOU CALLIN COMPROMISED   

yes, dana and keenan, that's the very bunch i was talking about in my earlier post.  i'm glad the word about them is spreading so fast.  y'all need to go, check it our, just to see what i'm talking about.  besides, y'all have SOME willpower left, right?  so you wouldn't be in any danger to pick up this evil addiction.  just look at me:  i ain't addicted, i don't know what y'all's problem is.  in fact, i'm so bored with this topic, i'm gonna go make some shavings, just to prove i ain't addicted 

[GregB]

dear keenan,

my addiction started 4 years ago (but of course i didn't realize it was an addiction at the time).  i was gradually sucked into it by so-called friends who couldn't suffer anybody around them that was not addicted.  the climax of my addiction was reached at a gathering of bowaholics of the worst kind, down south, in the rural areas of tennessee.  some truly evil characters had lured me in with free lodging and food and even had free samples of my favorite drug waiting for me.

Dear Dr. Keenan,
I must confess that my desire for varying colored dusts with yellow as my favorite has reached an all time high for me that I doubt I'll ever be able to come down from. It's not enough that the decor in the great room of our house is overwhelmed with bows on cabinets, with truoil bottles, leather, thread, needles, razor blades, bow string jigs, etc., etc. etc. covering practically all table surfaces. Everything in my basement has a coating of the yellow dust, with yellow shavings on the floor that I can't bring myself to sweep up!  

But worse yet, I'm determined to bring others down with me...yes I'm one of those "evil characters" that Dustybaer was referring to when delivering his own sad story to you!     I along with others who I'll leave nameless until they can bring themselves to face their own bowyering addition through confession...Pappy   have been working for months now preparing for what undoubtedly will be the largest gathering of bow makin' addicts our part of the country as ever seen. We spin our webs to catch unsuspecting innocent folks...even kids! , in our attempt to bring more and more into the growing masses seeking the dreaded yellow dust! I'm ashamed for even being a part of this, but I can't help myself! " I can't get enough...of that yellow stuff... I mean dust"!

Dr. Keenan, is there any glimmer of hope for me to climb out of the depths of this all emcompassing addiction? Or is all loss...?