I've come to a realization/epiphany regarding my bow making

[Carson (CMB)]

Happy to hear you are wanting to make some real bows.  I agree with others that you can still find some local wood.  I worked in Northern Illinois, Grayslake area for a summer doing bat surveys in those buckthorn infested forest preserves.  I remember keying out a huge number of tree species, many of which would qualify as good bow wood, in some of the more mature forests.  Not encouraging you to cut without permission on forest preserves, but there are a number of those remnant forest patches out there and not are all county forest preserves.  Try knocking on farmhouse doors, and if you have a bow, show it to them, that usually opens up the conversation.

[scp]

IMHO we might as well stick to stave bows. Once you start to make laminated bows, you would be tempted to compete with fiberglass bows. Even if not, using modern power tools and glues would make us compete with manufactured laminated bows. Not that anything's wrong with doing so, but I would rather handcraft bows instead of manufacturing them. I'm considering giving up my bandsaw and starting to use a froe more often. Afterall it's a lot easier to split wood than to cut it.

[PatM]

I  have only dabbled with lam bows in a very low key way  since I have no tools to speed the process but definitely my heart is far more in stumbling on or seeking out the perfect HHB or Elm stave.

[JW_Halverson]

Once you have a couple of stave bows under your belt (or skirt in your case), you will wonder why you fooled with lams for so very long!  Congrats on making the transition, the de-evolution, the great leap into the past, call it what you will.

[Badly Bent]

I'm in your area also Kiltedcelt. I'm sure I've got a couple staves I could spare also to get ya started. Between Paul and I you could be scraping on a stave bow before thanksgiving if we're able to meet up. I'm out in Aurora, I'll send you a pm.

Greg

[okie64]

You might try posting that you need staves in the trading post and list some things you would be willing to trade. Just trying to give you some more options.

[kiltedcelt]

Wow! Lots o' chatter on this thread since earlier today. For starters, I live in an apartment so I don't have a ton of space. Sure, I'd love to have 20 staves, but I just don't have anywhere to put them. At the most I can probably store half a dozen or so staves while I work on them in a little workshop my building manager allows me to use in the basement. I'm not so hot to get my hands on staves that I'm gonna sneak around in the dark like a ninja or try to sneak out of a forest preserve with a couple cut logs, even if they are invasive species like buckthorn. I'm content for now with trading for staves or buying a few here and there. I'm not going to comment on the debate regarding larcenous acquisitions of bow wood. That wasn't the point of this thread originally nor is it still the point. I'm looking for retailers with reasonably priced staves or members here with staves they're willing to part with or trade for, provided I have anything that anyone else might want. And thanks Badly Bent, and Paulsemp - I'll PM da both of youse guise (Chee-ca-go speak) and see if we can work something out.