Band saw tiller

[bjrogg]

Stick bender I hope I didn't offend you I really don't care what tools one makes a bow with. I guess for me it could take a couple months to tiller a bow cause I don't work steady at it. I see nothing wrong with roughing out your bow using whatever tools you want to use to get it to a heavy floor tiller. What I was saying is after floor tiler for me it takes more time putting bow on and off tree, studying the bend deciding what to remove and what not to. When I read your post I got feeling you want to continue tilering with bandsaw after floor tiler. I don't know if anyone else does that but I'd have hard enough time not screwing up just getting to floor tiler good luck however you proceed.
Bjrogg

[Knotty]

I can't imagine myself working on a stave with any electrical tools,
I'd screw up in a few minutes.
I like to take my time doing things,
The only thing I have no patience with is waiting for staves to dry!
Anyway, I guess it would be a good idea to use a bandsaw to get it to a rough shape,
And then refining it with a draw knife and finishing the tiller with a scraper.
At least , that's what I do, only, I don't have a drawknife , instead , I use a normal hunting knife.

Good luck!

[bradsmith2010]

Stick bender, I am not a nay sayer,, if someone has the skill to tiller with a band saw great,, I just do better with rasp,,,probably because I have used it the most,, do what works the best for you for sure,,
I am a painter,, I still just draw the subject on the canvas and paint it by hand,, whew,, just like the old days, well some guys project the image on the canvas ,, trace it and then draw it in,, some have the image digitally printed on the canvas and paint that,,,, I can probably have mine drawn before someone can set up a projector, or does a digital image,,,,because I use that skill every day,, and I find it more efficient,,,,,thats kind of the way I look at the tools,,,, I have enjoyed everyones input,, I think its all valid,, if you are having fun, or fulfilled with the bow you make,, and especially learning something,, what ever that might be,, even if it is patience and learning to respect another point of view,,,

[Stick Bender]

Fellas some of you guys know me better then others but I dont get offended easely I never said I was offended , Gun control & High taxes offend me but nothing any body said here did I actually like the free imput of ideas , I have only made 8 bows & some of you here have saved my butt from making some mistakes , theres a lot of talent here & its good every body can share it along with there opinions.

[mikekeswick]

...and I do prefer to walk when I can and not drive.
Nobody on this board makes primitive bows. I doubt we have the mentality to do so anymore. Too much water under the technical bridge for that. If you want to use power tools to tiller your wood bows than have at it. That is your puragative. If you make a statement here on PA you had better be ready for the answers you get, good, bad or indifferent.

I have and I still have the 'mentality', actually the word ability is better suited. We also have the ability to walk/run everywhere, the ancients could run 200 miles in a day....think about that....maybe we aren't all that 'superior'. We have the latent ability to do a huge amount of truly amazing things - knocking up a bow with stone tools isn't that hard....Pat the human hasn't changed - the nonsense we are force feed through the media etc is what has changed our mentalities.  We are all wonderful creations but are slowly being turned into lazy/overweight/none thinking zombies.
Maybe it would be a good thing for us ALL to make a stone tool only bow - to remind us how 'easy' (read boring!) our modern lives are. Making things 'easy' is not a good thing.

[PatM]

 the ancients could run 200 miles in a day....think about that....

  Now just where was this documented?

[JoJoDapyro]

I won't lie, I've thought about doing this. But speed is not my friend. The slower I go, the better chance of a bow happening. All of the bad results I have had are due to going too fast, and most of them are due to the band saw. Whatever works for you, I will support it!

[Del the cat]

This all just silly...
Use the tools you want.
My bandsaw saves my elbows and finger joint which give me gyp.
But I know full well I could make a bow with stone tools if the need arose. The harder thing is the string.
I'm primitive enough for Mrs Cat and that's good enough for me .
Del

[PEARL DRUMS]

I simply love wooden bows and leave the drama for soap operas.

[PEARL DRUMS]

And one more thing. Like older folks and drivers licenses, Roy you need you keyboard revoked.

[GB]

Mike; I don't know how the rest of the forum feels about being dismissed as lazy people living boring lives, but it pisses me off no end.  I had a paragraph written about my life as a single parent raising my 11 year old daughter after my wife died, while working mandatory 12 hour shifts.  But screw it, I don't owe you an explanation.
If you feel your life is too easy and simply making a bow with stone tools will remedy that, have at it.  Just don't assume that everyone else has the same simple "problems".

[bradsmith2010]

I pretty much take opinions with a grain of salt,,and just enjoy the bow making info ,,, and there is alot of great info,,,,Ok I need to work on a bow now,,

[scp]

I only have a 10 inch band saw. Therefore I hand split logs as much as possible. I usually use my band saw to get staves to close to floor tiller stage. After that draw knife is safer and as fast as band saw. But it feels good to use a band saw to floor tiller a stave, so that I can finish it with just a goose neck scraper. It only takes a couple of hour to make a bow that way. I try hard not to use the sanding machine, sanders, or even sand papers, except for the tips. If you wanna make bows fast, get the best scrapers you can get!

[JoJoDapyro]

Mike; I don't know how the rest of the forum feels about being dismissed as lazy people living boring lives, but it pisses me off no end.  I had a paragraph written about my life as a single parent raising my 11 year old daughter after my wife died, while working mandatory 12 hour shifts.  But screw it, I don't owe you an explanation.
If you feel your life is too easy and simply making a bow with stone tools will remedy that, have at it.  Just don't assume that everyone else has the same simple "problems".

I am fat and lazy, and I can make excuses all day about not having time to do whatever. The sad truth is I have all the time in the world to do anything I want. I just choose to prioritize things differently than others. I don't think Mike was lumping anyone into that boat, but in my case it's true. I'm lazy, and fat due to my laziness.

I would think that a higher TPI blade would work out pretty well, if you are using it as a rasp, and not to cut. Just my 2 cents.

[SLIMBOB]

Couple of years ago maybe 3, I set out to make an Osage bow without power tools.  Just to say that I had, nothing more.  I got it roughed out with a tommy hatchet and draw knife.  Looked like a bow but had lots of meat that had to come off before it would bend any.  It was at that point that I said OK, that's enough.  I can do this,  but the time invested is more than I want to spend from here forward.  I finished it the "old fashioned way" with a belt sander.  I do this for no other reason than I enjoy it.  Anything that adds to that enjoyment gets to hang around, and anything that takes away from it is done away with if possible.  I love the praise that I sometimes get when I have posted a bow PA. Who wouldn't?  But I don't build them to suit anyone else.  I was making bows before the internet and almost no one ever saw any of them but myself and a few close friends.  I have joked about this before, that with the ability to post bows on PA I no longer have to take my newly finished bows to dinner parties.  My wife is particularly happy with that!  I once brain tanned an Axis deer hide.  The purists in my little circle were apoplectic over the idea.  To top it off I threw it in the close dryer with a pair of tennis shoes during the last stages of drying as I couldn't get it completely dry at the end of several days of pulling on it, so for several mornings I would resoak and start again.  The dryer trick worked perfectly.  The hide made a beautiful beaded gun case for me and were it not for my telling you all this, no one would know.  I'm also pretty sure that after that, some of my purist buddies secretly used the dryer trick when nobody was looking.