Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: Colt45 on June 24, 2009, 05:37:39 pm
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So I started making bows like sixth months ago and I think it's really fun! But now every time I see a piece of trim I start thinking about making it into a bow. I look at a tree and I see staves! And I just keep making them! It's like this for all you too? :D
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Yep ! It doesn;t get any better either ;)
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yup ery addicting,isnt it >:D ;D
i too had that problem,every tree i sen i thought about how many bows are in the sucker
however i have found a cure for the addiction of bowmaking
START ROCK KNAPPING,you'll forget about bows.well atleast i did for awhile,stillm ake some bows but not near as many ;D
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If I haven't done alot of bowmaking in the past weeks, designs start to dance in my eyes whenever I try to fall asleep. frigtening! :p
Nick
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Bow making, reading about it, or thinking about it... pretty much occupies the majority of my free time. Just ask my family!!
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If I haven't done alot of bowmaking in the past weeks, designs start to dance in my eyes whenever I try to fall asleep. frigtening! :p
Nick
;D I understand you very well ;D
There are so many designs ..... :o :D
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I run off the road several times while driving trying to pick out trees on the sides of the roads. Sometimes I look down at my spedometer and realize I am only going like 15 mph with a line of cars behind me! :) This happens alot but I am always on the lookout for more bow wood.
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I go walking in the woods every day. I love being in the woods, but I'm primarily looking for bow wood.
It is the most addictive hobby I've ever had.
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i go through phases with it...these days i'm ON...every tree is a nest of bows...every day is a chance to find more wood...every stray cat is a target...
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I've been building wood bows for over 20 years and it gets better each day! ;D I still look at trees, piles of locust fence posts and anything that could be used somehow in archery. I still spend most of my time thinking about bows, arrows or other archery stuff. So you guys get used to it! It's a hell of a journey!!! 8)
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Hello my name is Ron and I'm an addict about 10 years ago someone shoved a piece of fiberglass in " OOPS sorry for the curse word" my hand and then a tri lam and sob then it was on to the hard stuff the pushers in Tennessee got hold of me they said this stuff is alright it won't hurt nuthin. Well from then I been in and out of trouble petty crime stealin wood from the neighbors yard then the county park and and and I have nowhere to turn. Someone please help.Ron :o
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My wife is jealous, but I just remind her that she is the one that gave me the idea to get started in the first place! ;D
Sooner or later she is going to find me laying in a pile of chips and shavings at dawn, scraper in hand in the fetal position softly muttering, so softly. ;)
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I can quit building Bows any time I want.....and then I build Flint Knives....or Steel Knives....or Arrows....or Hawks....Slingshots....but it always something.....they are all Addictive
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I have no problem quitting, and not even thinking about building bows....and then I wake up in the morning!!
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Yeah Mike! I'm just like you. Went from flintknapping to bow building to gun collecting and shootin, to building my own kayak and equipment in the garage. Purchased the only thing I could not make myself today. A drysuit! Man, that was expensive!!!! It's beans and rice for the next few months. Now to make the aquilisaq (spray skirt) and another Greenland paddle for a back up. Ok! Can someone build a car from scratch? How do I smelt mettle? ??? ??? ??? ??? ;D
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When I got divorced 20 years ago I was pondering a new career and at the same time relishing my new freedom to do with my time as I pleased. ( little sad about the divorce also) . I read a book titled " do what you love and the money will follow" I decided i would just do what I loved doing and forget about the money, if it happened it happened. For about 10 years I did nothing but make bows, I rarely ever sell one as I don't like doing finish work and consider bows strictly a hobby and want to keep it that way. A while back I got to do a chapter for the bowyers bible for a few bucks, on several occassions I have been invited to do small group seminar/workshps for a little money. For the past few months I have been busy on bow related jobs for the discovery channel whic I find challenging and really enjoy. My long term goal is to open up a coffee shop for bowmakers with a historical/ sportsman theme to it. Inside the coffee shop for socializing and flirting and out in the yard for bow and arrow making. Have been getting all sorts of propositions lately and I didn't seek any of them out for financial gain. I say if you love it just keep doing it for the love of it! Steve
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I've been addicted to being a maker all my life. In the past I've been addicted to making brain tan deerskin, flintlocks, pre 1820 mocs gear and hunting bags, quivers, wood bowls and turned/carved wood sculpture, small lathe centerwork, teaching what I know, flys for fishing, helping current veterans, bows, arrows, stone points, working in the garden, hunting, paddling my kayak, working out, creative writing, firekeeping at a NA sweatlodge, and generally having fun!!! Helping current vets and bows and all that goes with them are my current passions.
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Yep,most of my spare time is devoted to something to do with Bows,arrows,shooting or hunting.
Don't think of much else. Yes I am an addict. Can't seem to help myself. ;) ;D ;D I have a very
understandind wife,she always tell her friends ,well he could be up to worse. ;) :)
Pappy
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Well said Badger !
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I'm only in the second year of making bows, but find myself looking for downed trees after a storm to ask for a limb or two. It really T's me off when I see guys cutting a good hickory or Black locust up for fire wood. Can you imagine cutting up perfectly good bows with a chain saw, makes me sick to my stomach. :P
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I'm not addicted to making bows....and I'm not obsessed with archery....I just do it to relieve the boredom and stress in my life. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it....and Ron, don't try to get me to attend one of those meetings....I don't need help.) >:(
*Burp* :P
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The only thing that slows the urge is if you get into flintknapping, then you'll be hooked on that. LOL
VB
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When I got divorced 20 years ago I was pondering a new career and at the same time relishing my new freedom to do with my time as I pleased. ( little sad about the divorce also) . I read a book titled " do what you love and the money will follow" I decided i would just do what I loved doing and forget about the money, if it happened it happened. For about 10 years I did nothing but make bows, I rarely ever sell one as I don't like doing finish work and consider bows strictly a hobby and want to keep it that way. A while back I got to do a chapter for the bowyers bible for a few bucks, on several occassions I have been invited to do small group seminar/workshps for a little money. For the past few months I have been busy on bow related jobs for the discovery channel whic I find challenging and really enjoy. My long term goal is to open up a coffee shop for bowmakers with a historical/ sportsman theme to it. Inside the coffee shop for socializing and flirting and out in the yard for bow and arrow making. Have been getting all sorts of propositions lately and I didn't seek any of them out for financial gain. I say if you love it just keep doing it for the love of it! Steve
If you build it they will come!!! ;D
Well, if you get that coffee shop going I may end up having to pitch my tent in your shops backyard! Coffee and bows!!!! My kinda place. Pappy, you might have a bit of competition here on the west coast for bow building and fun. ;D
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I figure i am pretty much addicted, and i'm ok with that, and my girlfriend is becoming let's say more ok with that.
it's all a journey, learn what you can when you can and apply it to the next, which opens up more and more doors and possibilities.
I am running my first bow making workshop next week at a primitive skills gathering which i am super excited about. the trailer is packed with yew staves. and I am setting up at a music festival in august to demonstrate bowyery and raffle off a bow.
speaking of which, just finished sanded down the horn tips and the sizing should almost be dry for the snake skins.
as long as i'm learning i'll keep coming back.
Jamie
i've often thought of this forum as a support network for addicted bowyers, and here it is
like pat said, i could be up to much worse...
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I can't sleep, I can't eat, I can't work, I can't even blink without seeing visions bows! :o
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I hope some of you guys do show up at the coffee shop, free coffee and refills durring your visit. Steve
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I would love to do that some day Badger,that is a great idea,hope it works out. :) No
competition Tiller there's room for all of us.We need more stuff like that around the country where we can gather. I don't think a coffee shop would go over to well in TN. maybe a bar with a shop in the back. ;) ;D ;D
Pappy
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Winter is bow building time for me. I don't want to stop. Lord willing I'll continue as long as I can. Jawge
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Pappy, If I had access to a barn out here I would be doing exactly what you are doing. When I get home from work I will try to post the littel piece that Tim Baker wrote about the mythical " Bowyers Bar"
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quoted from TBB4
"sign over the entrance to the bowmakers bar"
"When two or more wood bowmen find themselves together, whatever convesation ensues is largely veneer. Their most important communication is subterranean and wordless. It's a shared sense of the bow's mystery, of ties to ancient, authentic world, of quiet kinship. Become a woodbow man and you join a band of brothers stretching back in an unbroken line to your 500th grandfather. A time when, unlike our present competitive world, your life and the life of those close to you depended on the sharing of knowledge, goods, and danger. Become a woodbow man and you see that ancient spirit resurrected, other bowmen offering you their secrets, their help, even wood and tools. And maybe more suprising, you note that without calculation or conscious will you yourself becoming such a person too. If this evolves even a whifff of primal familiarity then it's entirely proper that you step at least tentatively onto that ancient path: make your first bow and see what happens"
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nope i hate building bows ha ha it is fun to take a tree and make a weapon its also good to fail to learn not what to do. thats what makes it fun new things.
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I know a good way to kick the habit, Go Broke, Live in an area that don't have trees for bows and get rid of all the Hickory shovel and axe handles. Ah I would end up making a bow from a broom handle Ive been hooked for three years now I'm stuck with a bunch of bows I can't hunt with except the 60 # Osage Dang regulations
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well once your wife worries more about you looking at trees than pretty girls you have to wonder. >:D
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AKAPK there is always something to make a bow out of! ;D Good luck breaking that habit :D Well hey that coffee shop sounds great! I'd totally be there. There needs to be a better way for us to meet up hey? Trade staves and things, talk, build bows, drink coffee. Sounds good to me!
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Steve, our daughter lives in San Diego. When we come to visit her(whenever that may be) I will definitely come and visit your coffee shop and chew the archery fat with you and whomever else might be there. 8)
Pappy, you will have to be able to tell the difference between coffee and tea first! ;D >:D
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Pat if you ever plan a visit down here maybe you can show up for our Sunday Pasadena meet, 3rd sunday of every month. We usually have anywhere from 15 to 40 guys show up and we just hang out grind on bows and shoot a little, very informal and your wife would be welcome as well, Steve
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I will definite pencil it in on any itinerary we make Steve. I just recently realized how close you were to San Diego. If nothing else I will come for a visit!
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if my wife catches me staring off into space she says "Your thinking about building bows, aren't you!!!" Its definitley a strange mistress.
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Started in 95 and stopped about 4 years ago. Made one bow in 4 years! Well, I just finished one, I have a 58" osage recurve waiting to get sinew, just put recurves in a 43" stave (super short pony), split an elm log, traded for a beautiful hickory qtr., and have a white oak limb justa waiting.
You can venture off the path, but you will always find your way back.
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Steve, our daughter lives in San Diego. When we come to visit her(whenever that may be) I will definitely come and visit your coffee shop and chew the archery fat with you and whomever else might be there. 8)
Pappy, you will have to be able to tell the difference between coffee and tea first! ;D >:D
LoL...I'm with you on this one Pat! Coftee.....yuk....lol... :P :D