new guy! found some suitable trees!!!!

[ratshooter]

Hey y'all
On a whim i recently picked up a primitive archer magazine. I have had an interest in primitive archery and flint arromheads for years and just never have fallowed through with it.
Well everything kinda fell into place over this week. I was bumbling through my local flea market looking for sockets, and low and behold in the dallor bin is a drawknife! I scooped it up and found a hatchet, handsaw, and rasp.
Its almost as if the wood gods were screaming at me "Go forth and make something"
The plan:
My area of ohio has alot of ash, hickory, and maple [I even know where a 20 ft section of horse apple tree is, but we will save him for awhile], so I plan to go out and harvest on tree of atleast 6 in and split it, along with a few hickory sapplings.
The build plan is to strip the bark, ruff out the stave, seal the ends with glue, and let dry.

But after they are dry I am clueless, I dont know what demensions I should cut to [i'm 6'2" and a big boy if that helps],I have no idea on how to make a string yet [working on searching here], And worst of all I cant find any arrow woods in my area {tuscarawas valley of ohio].
Any input links or education is appriciated, I have already learned so much from Y'all.

[Weylin]

The best two things you can do in this order are find an experienced bowyer in your area that will show you the ropes and read books. Hopefully someone in you area will speak up on this thread but if not I'd be more agressive about finding who's nearby; there's nothing like having friendly hands on help. In terms of books to read, pick up any/all of the traditional bowyers bibles, The Bent Stick by Paul Comstock, Hunting the Osage Bow by Dean Torges, etc.  There are more good books but those are the ones that pop into my head. Hope that helps. Good luck and have fun. Welcome to PA

[Del the cat]

Your plan is excellent...
My advice, is to take a runty stave from your first batch and season it quickly by sealing the ends and putting it in a hot car/garage/whatever. Rough it out as it is still drying and have a go at making a bow even if it's not fully seasoned.
You will learn soooo much in the first attempt and it will get you on the right path.
Start with say 66" - 70" long and about 1 1/2" wide.
Leave the underbark surface alone, this will become the back of your bow (furthest from the archer).
You can taper width and thickness or just width (but that still needs a lot of work to get the thickness even).
Go from about  1/2 thick in the middle to about 1/4" at the tips. Taper the width from 1 1/2 to about 1/2
This WONT make you a bow! But it will get you roughed out to something that flexes and wants to become a bow!
Don't fall into the trap of cutting out fancy handles and stuff, it can weaken the bow and is a waste of time early on. Leave the centre section 1 1/2" wide and thick as heck to start with tapering smoothly into the limb about 2 - 3" either side of the centre line.
You will need to make a tillering rig, this can be any thing from a notched stick to a block screwed to the wall with a pulley below it and a spring scale.
Have a look at my 'Bowyers Diary' (just google it) and website 'Delsbows' on my bowyers diary, I post everything I do from cutting a log to tillering. I also show my mistakes (as we all make 'em)
Get stuck in and have a go, sooner you start the sooner you'll learn, you can be reading about it when it's too dark to work
Del

[blackhawk]

Welcome to PA and a whole new world(the best world I've ever known)

Are you closer to canton or new philadelphia? Or in between em. Either way I'm an hour n a half from ya,and if you wood like some help I will be more than glad to help. Just send me a pm if interested. I'm in pa just a couple miles from the ohio border across from beaver creek state park,calcutta,east liverpool area.

[Buckeye Guy]

Get with blackhawk !!
Or come to Flint Ridge state park laborday Weekend And you can meet a few of the folks ,and talk things over !!
I will be camped on the hill just before the exit of the park !
Chris (blackhawk) is most likely your best bet for some one you can get to !
What days you gonna be at the Ridge Chris ?
We can get you to face to face then !
Have fun !!
Welcome to PA
Guy

[owlbait]

I'm a newbie that has received help from blackhawk. I highly recommend you do the same. Chris is a great guy, extremely knowledgeable and has a very calm manner, even when helping a bonehead like me!  A little hands on paired with the reading and videos will push you WAY ahead in your bow building. Good luck.

[blackhawk]

Thanks for the recomendations guy n mike...ill be at flint ridge all day Saturday for sure...n if you/he wood rather meet there first I can bring tools n a tiller tree n do it there as well.

By the way flint ridge is over labor day weekend. Here's some info on it

 http://www.primitivearcher.com/smf/index.php/topic,34189.0.html

[ratshooter]

Blackhawk I actually live in a little town called baltic, its kinda close to new philadelphia bout 15 mins.
I would love to come and meet you guys but funds always seem to be short, same reason I havent bought the bowyers bible yet.

Del between your blog and Billys videos is where I got the idea to start building.

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome! I hope to join in on some of the knapp ins and meets soon. It seems like this is the most friendly and helpful community out there.

Well no sense iin waiting for the draw knife and rasp to do it themselves im off to fell me some bow wood!   

[ratshooter]

no die on the woods today, was looking for a straight 4-6 in sapling and only found a few that were crooked, all the straight woods is 18in plus. I have a buddy that works at as a wood cutter maybe he can find me something tomarrow.

[Badger]

  You better stay away from Blackhawk, he is "bad news" . He will get you hooked on this bow making stuff.

[blackhawk]

  You better stay away from Blackhawk, he is "bad news" . He will get you hooked on this bow making stuff.

  who me.....riiiiight. I'm an angel ......lol.

So your not too far from flint ridge then either. I would try like heck to get there if you can. Lemme know if you want help. Id meet you half way as well,like carrolton at a park or somewhere. Trust me you'll learn waaaaaaaay faster,and have a waaaaaaaay higher chance of success your first time having someone teach you. You can read read and read(which you should do as well) ,and you really need more than the internet,so get a book if you can. But even that can be tough to learn from. Speaking from experience here,cus I learned all on my own with no one to help me and no internet. The learning curve is steep and hard,and having someone in the know watching over your shoulder will lessen the steep curve,and keep you from making a blind mistake that wood ruin lots of time already invested into a stave. The hardest part of bowmaking is tillering. It'll make or break a bow. And second is design. It can take many bows to figure those out to be proficient at them,and that's only the tip of the iceburg as it'll take years to truly master it all,and then there's still things to always learn even if your a very knowledgable bowmaker. That's one of the many reasons why its fun,cus your always learning. Your going to have to make and attempt many times to get a worthy, durable, long lasting,and good shootin product

[PEARL DRUMS]

Pusha' man.............

[ratshooter]

  You better stay away from Blackhawk, he is "bad news" . He will get you hooked on this bow making stuff.

  who me.....riiiiight. I'm an angel ......lol.

So your not too far from flint ridge then either. I would try like heck to get there if you can. Lemme know if you want help. Id meet you half way as well,like carrolton at a park or somewhere. Trust me you'll learn waaaaaaaay faster,and have a waaaaaaaay higher chance of success your first time having someone teach you. You can read read and read(which you should do as well) ,and you really need more than the internet,so get a book if you can. But even that can be tough to learn from. Speaking from experience here,cus I learned all on my own with no one to help me and no internet. The learning curve is steep and hard,and having someone in the know watching over your shoulder will lessen the steep curve,and keep you from making a blind mistake that wood ruin lots of time already invested into a stave. The hardest part of bowmaking is tillering. It'll make or break a bow. And second is design. It can take many bows to figure those out to be proficient at them,and that's only the tip of the iceburg as it'll take years to truly master it all,and then there's still things to always learn even if your a very knowledgable bowmaker. That's one of the many reasons why its fun,cus your always learning. Your going to have to make and attempt many times to get a worthy, durable, long lasting,and good shootin product

I plan as soon as i can to meet up with some of you guys, Black hawl you esspecailly, hopefully the bow gods smile upon you for offering up help[ to some dumb rookie.
As of right now the plan is just to find a tree suitible for cutting staves from and do a little rough work then let em dry. Hopefully by then i'll be able to meet up with someone to tutor me a bit.
I do have a bit of local help but the guy just gave words and no "dirt time" so i dont know if he knew it or just read a book.

Im a fairly hand person [trained manual machinist hae 10 = years in school and hobby woodworking. so i may try and find a tree with 2 or more staves in it and see how badly i mess up the first, then seek pro advice. I have a design for a tillering tree, and prolly have an old 2x4 or 2 kicking around here somewhere.

wish me luck on stave hunt number 3 tomarrow, I'm gonna need it. I think i might have a tree thats laid down of oak from a recent storm gonna go investigate it.

[Weylin]

careful of downed wood. The fungus and such sets in faster than you'd think. White woods especially. I think you're better off sticking with live wood for now. On your first bow you want as much going for you as you can get. 

[Buckeye Guy]

So your from Baltic !
I used to do some horse pulls with folks from there !
Good folks !
long time ago !
One of my childhood Friends married a girl from new Philly !
Well if you can't get with Chris just yet maybe look up OSTA they do some trad shoots in your area and a couple of the folks that hang out with them do selfbows !Not as good a deal as getting with Chris but still good stuff !
Should you find yourself on US 30 heading west when you get almost to Indiana give me a call ! Sorry we are on opposite sides of the state !
Have fun
Guy