How did you get started making wood bows?

[Msturm]

Great thread!

I started out about 4 years ago. I was really into trad archery and have been for 10 or so years. I was looking at some TG posts and the Leatherwall and saw some selfbows. It looked like something I could do. I searched around for suitable bow woods in Hawaii and that search brought me here to PA. I spent hours drooling over Manny's guava bows and then went into the mountains to cut down some of my own guava. While that seasoned I made a couple red oak board bows and got in contact with Manny. What a great guy!  He invited me over to his place and showed me the basics. I still have the scraper he gave me. After that I was hooked. I have made a couple dozen bows from several different bow woods since then. But my favorite is the bow I worked on with him.

Msturm

[ohma2]

Msturm thats  wild ,i have been thinking of Manny the last few days.the way he would pose on top of a stump and such ,his bows were candy to my eyes.i bought several staves from him (strawberry Guava) makes a good bow.do you know whats up with him now? I sure miss his posts.

[leonwood]

Really cool to read everybodies stories!

I never really knew about archery, did see some olympic stuff but that never interested me and I was totally unaware of the existence of traditional archery.

About three and a half years ago my wife and kids and I where on holiday and stumbled upon a medeival event. There where re-enactment groups and loads of crafstmen and also an archery range. We all shot some arrows and had a great time.

Then there was a guy scraping wooden selfbows. I talked to him for about an hour and he showed me how he did and at that moment I knew I had to try that as well! So two weeks later when we got home I searched the internet and found some buildalongs. Did not have any woodworking experience so I bought a pine board and a rasp and build a 27@28 lbs pine pyramid bow in that same weekend. My daughter and I immediately went to a neirby field to try it out and it worked! Now we did not have a clue about shooting but the feeling of letting some arrows fly from something you built from wood. Of course I tried to see how far it would go and I still remember the scream from my daughter when it flew way farther than we anticipated and landed only five feet away from a busy road next to the field!
After that I was hooked and will probably be for the rest of my life!

This is a pic of my duaghter with that bow right after I made it:

I have a full draw picture somewhere but can't find it yet.

[hoosierf]

My wife was giving me a hard time about buying a trad bow when I had a fine wheel bow.  She didn't think i'd use it enough to justify the cost so I said to myself, fine I'll make my own.  Built a hickory long bow 10 years ago and now I've built probably 75 and counting.  Gave the wheel bow to my nephew after I built my second successful bow.  I grew up shooting a bear takedown in junior high.  We had an unbelievable teacher named Steve Louden from Fort Wayne, Indiana that taught us to shoot bows, deer hunt, trap and skin furbearers.  I feel so lucky that he furthered my interest in the outdoors and introduced me to bows.

[Parnell]

Angie got me this book for Christmas in ‘08.  There is a short little section a couple pages about making a stick bow...and so it began.

[Eric Garza]

I started making wooden bows in 2002. I had owned a business making fishing rods for a while, and wanted another hobby I could use to get food. I had never hunted before and no one in my family hunted, but I came across the idea of making laminated fiberglass bows on the internet. I bought a kit from Bingham Projects, but decided the adhesives were too toxic for my tastes. As I pondered how to remedy that, I found a listing for the Traditional Bowyers Bibles. I bought them, read them, returned the kit to Bingham Projects, bought and ruined several hickory staves, then bought a much cheeper red oak board from Home Depot and ended up with my first shooting bow. It was ugly and slow as sin, but it was my first success. Things progressed from there...

[vinemaplebows]

I started out when I was about 7 or 8 shooting those little $3 hickory bows with the two arrows with suction cups. It didn't take long for the rubber cups to come off and the sticks sharpened by rubbing them on the sidewalk. And then I was in the woods everyday hunting anything that moved. Never successful till in my early Teens with rabbits and squirrels with a 25# Pearson glass bow, still have it. Then owned a compound in the early eighties for a year and got the bug to build a wooden bow.

 Made the first one out of a hickory sapling and it shot real good till my Compound shooting Buddy pulled it back too far. After that I found Paleo Planet when it first started up and then migrated to Primitive Archer's site when it was in the fighting and arguing days. After that it was game on.

Ahhhh, the good ole days.... 

[bubby]

When i was a kid i had one of those solid glass recurves with the stipes running the length of them, shot the crap out of that bow trying to get squirrels and what. Shot a compound for a long time, had a browning with the wood riser and had it split drawing it. Couldnt afford another and found an old poplar science magazine i think it was, article on how to build a long bow. Built a few from red oak with those plans, then found the ferrets board bow build plans, got on paleo planet and tradgang, Patb told me from there that i should check out primitive archer and i been here a while now

[Del the cat]

Angie got me this book for Christmas in ‘08.  There is a short little section a couple pages about making a stick bow...and so it began.

"Dangerous Book for Boys" 
Just gotta love that
Del
BTW... is there a section on girls? Just akin' 'cos they is dangerous ...

[mullet]

When i was a kid i had one of those solid glass recurves with the stipes running the length of them, shot the crap out of that bow trying to get squirrels and what. Shot a compound for a long time, had a browning with the wood riser and had it split drawing it. Couldnt afford another and found an old poplar science magazine i think it was, article on how to build a long bow. Built a few from red oak with those plans, then found the ferrets board bow build plans, got on paleo planet and tradgang, Patb told me from there that i should check out primitive archer and i been here a while now

I have a copy of that magazine.

[gfugal]

My first experience with a bow and arrow was when I was a young scout. I shot the bow and luckily got a bullseye (not because of any skill) and I thought it was the greatest thing ever and that feeling has always stuck with me, endearing me to archery. Also, I've always had an interest in medieval weaponry like bows, swords, and axes, and enjoy fantasy stories that involve them such as Lord of the Rings. So that's why I like traditional archery in general, but I got into bowmaking because of a survival book. When I was a young teenager, I would go on campouts every month. I enjoyed camping and the outdoors so much I bought the SAS Survival Handbook by John "Lofty" Wiseman at a bookstore. In it, it had a simple watered down explanation on how to build a bow. I was instantly intrigued, and went to the library and checked out two books: Making Indian Bows and Arrows by Douglass spotted Eagle, and Jim Hamm's Bows and Arrows of the Native Americans. I read them in like a month and went out and cut a branch off a tree and started working on my very first one.

[Pat B]

I was a late comer. I didn't start hunting until 1979 when I was in my late twenties. Never had any weapons growing up. My Dad was a police court judge and he wouldn't allow it. He did allow us to go out with a neighbor who's son was my friend and Bill (the Dad)taught us a guns and gun safety, boats and boat safety and other outdoor stuff.
 I got Married in 1978  and we moved from Savannah about 30 miles north to Bluffton SC. and that Christmas my wife bought me a TC .50cal Hawkins. I killed my first 2 deer with this gun after I had met a guy, Richard, that loved to hunt and fish so he and I hit it off. Just outside of Bluffton is Victoria Bluff WMA and they only allowed archery hunting and had 3 week long archery seasons. I was a boat mechanic in those days and the marina I worked at was tearing down some old storage shads. In one of the sheds I found an old Shakespeare recurve. That fall I hunted with it at Victoria Bluff and shot right over an 8pts back...3 times in less than a minute and I was hooked. Deer were dumb in those days. 
 My buddy Richard told me to go get a "real" bow and not long after I got a $50. Bear Blacktail Hunter compound bow, quiver, and unmatched aluminum arrows at a flea market. I killed 2 or 3 deer with that bow and sold it for $50 and bought a PSE Nova and killed a few deer with it. I started getting interested in instinctive shoot and replaced the cams for wheels and removed the arrow rest and replaced it with a rug on the riser.
 One Christmas I asked for a book I had seen in Traditional Bowhunter Magazine, The Bowyers Craft by Jay Massey so I ordered it from Jay and it's all history from there. Jay signed that book and The Primitive Archer to me and that was the beginning of my primitive archery career and book collection. I started playing with selfbows about that time. I think my first was a sassafras bow that looked like it was braced without a string on it but I was pleased when I shot it.
 I built quit a few bows with local woods and with locust fence rails I bought for $5 each when we'd visit the NC mountains. It wasn't until I first started pulling up Primitive Archer on my work computer because we didn't have a computer at home. That was in the late 1980's I think
 When I saw an ad in Traditional Bowhunter Magazine about a new magazine that was coming out, Primitive Archer, I sent in my check for a subscription. That was maybe 6 months before the magazine came out but I knew I wanted it. I still have that first Primitive Archer alone with every one published since then. It wasn't until I came on the PA forum and saw what others were doing with selfbows and how generous they were with their info and help that my bent sticks became bows and I've been hooked ever since.
...and that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

bubby, my friend Richard had 3 of those wood riser Browning's blow up on him. Browning replaced it twice and on the 3 time Richard told them to stick it and returned his money. He got an aluminum riser PSE.

[Hawkdancer]

Guess I may qualify as the oldest "newbie" on the site!  I learned to shoot wooden bows at summer camp in the late '40s - early 50's, bought a fiberglass Actionglass long bow and a set of matched arrows for about $15 in '57.  The arrows were a set that weren't picked up and the store owner just wanted his time and material cost back, still got that bow.  Eventually got a Bear Kodiak Magnum LH, and about 2 dozen semi matched arrows, along with 2 Shim Bows in a trade with a buddy.  Got started teaching Hunter Ed in 1980, and thought I should add a compound bow to the training aides, so I bought a used Jennings LH at a pawn shop.  Shot that a lot when I had a big backyard and no local anti ordinance to deal with.  Gave it to my son, and he found out they don't make parts for it anymore.   Got a new wheelie as a gift and used it for a while, it is in the case in the garage.  Still had an itch to shoot the recurve and the long bow, and finally decided to make my own wood bow after I got an atlatl, and found out about PA.  May have done the bent stick route, like a lot of boys, and decided I could re-fletch damaged arrows my boys were shooting!  So much for my original arrows!
First bow in many, many years is one the bow bench, awaiting my round tuit, and the installation of a second overhead work light.  Got arrows in progress, as well.  Got as self bow from Badger this year,
Posted a pic batch of the transdextramation, it shoots my arrows well!
Hawkdancer (Jerry Mc Connell)

[George Tsoukalas]

I've been a subscriber since the second issue. Those were the days when I could turn out one bow after the other. Thank God I can still turn out a few here and there.
Merry Christmas!
Jawge

[Greenriverwoodcraft]

I received a copy of "Fly Rods and Fly Tackle" by a author by the name Wells from the late 1800's from my grandfather and it was literally the Traditional  Bowyers Bible for wooden fly rods.  I build a few rods of various sizes and then I figured lets try a bow.  My first bow failed, so did the second, and third... but out of SPITE more than joy, and a lot of reading and research I taught myself to build a functional bow.  First they were all hickory backed but now I do as many self bows as backed ones.  I'm glad I stuck with it.