Brian’s thread gave me the idea for this one. I’m not sure how many self bow builders we have on here. But I was thinking if sure would be helpful to me and someone else that wants to try and build a self bow. If you guys that have made them. Would give a few of your tips on making a selfbow that has helped you along the way if your journey. And just maybe it will help someone else too. So who’s going to start this off? ;)

Go to a one of the many self bow gatherings around the country and let the veteran bowyers show you the ropes. My friend down the street went to the Tennessee Classic two years ago and came home with a completed nice shooting self bow his first time making one. He probably shaved off months of DIY, trial and error in a few days. I, on the other hand have spent a lot of time in my shop making tons of mistakes and ruining some good wood figuring it out on my own, with the help of forums like this and the internet. I've finally completed a couple working bows, but I took the long way to get there. I plan to be at the classic this year for sure.

Here for the tips. Good idea.

Well I hope people can take a tip from my “Starting Small” thread and see how much they can learn with scrap wood.

It has so much to offer.

It’s great to get to a meet and have bowyers help.

Nothing teaches you more though than just doing it. Having success and failure.

Building up your skills and confidence.

Someone can tell you and show you and that is very helpful.

Nothing like you getting your hands dirty though

Bjrogg

The meets are the fastest ways to learn from a good or even great bowyer. I live in Arkansas, my mentor lives in Kansas and another friend going down the same road at the same basic time was Greg Fetty, way up north. We took a lot of pics to be reviewed by all and had a lot of questions answered by James in Kansas. For me, for a beginner and even now for me, go slow, then maybe slower because when it is taken off, it is gone. Some woods like Hackberry, you can suddenly drop weight in a heartbeat.

Because of my poor eyesight, on the scraping of the limbs, to insure that I scrape the whole limb as needed, I use large crayons to color the entire area to be scraped and just scrape enough to clean it off before checking and doing it all over again. This forces me to take off light amounts and makes me slower at the same time. Heat and steam are your friends, at least as long as you don't over do the dry heat.

And don't be afraid to ask questions, they don't mean that you are stupid, you just don't know or you want to make sure. As you may have already found out, there is more than one way to skin a cat, so there are many ways to get to the same basic result. Some ways are easier or better for you, all according to what you may be taught or learned. Don't assume that all woods respond the same way, because they don't.

Sometimes, you have to step away for an hour, maybe even a day or two to let your mind clear up so that you can see what you are seeing more clearly. Remember that as the bowyer, you decide on the hows and whys you actually attack a piece of wood. You can always shorten a bow but it is much harder to lengthen one.

Make sure that the moisture content is within reason.

I will never suggest a red oak board for a first bow. I liken it to teaching your kids how to winter drive with bald tires. Red oak is finicky and finicky isn't something a newby should deal with. Use a solid hickory or osage stave for your first attempt.

I agree Pearl. Practice your skills on scraps, but when you decide to make a real bow. Go for the most friendly woods.

I don’t know about red oak, but I do know Osage is much more forgiving than hop. Guessing hop is easier than oak.

Not trying to put anything down. Just trying to improve your odds.

Bjrogg

How about a tip on this. This dark spot is right on the edge of the bottom limb. About 3 inches above the end of the fade. Is this stave still worth trying to get a bow out of?

How about a tip on this. This dark spot is right on the edge of the bottom limb. About 3 inches above the end of the fade. Is this stave still worth trying to get a bow out of?

How about a tip on this. This dark spot is right on the edge of the bottom limb. About 3 inches above the end of the fade. Is this stave still worth trying to get a bow out of?

How about a tip on this. This dark spot is right on the edge of the bottom limb. About 3 inches above the end of the fade. Is this stave still worth trying to get a bow out of?

How about a tip on this. This dark spot is right on the edge of the bottom limb. About 3 inches above the end of the fade. Is this stave still worth trying to get a bow out of?

That's in the working limb. I'd cut it ALL out of there and see what was left. If there's enough good wood to make a bow, fine. Carry on. If not, it goes into the smoker, and on to the next piece.

The number one thing I try to stress to people who ask is, go slow when chasing a ring and tillering, you can always take wood off but you can’t put it back

Thanks Jeff. The more I scraped the bigger the dark spot got. It really stands out against the rest of this White wood. I had a feeling this wasn’t good.

I’m with Jeff

I get rid of the wood I don’t trust and see if I can work with what’s left

Bjrogg

My tip would be to get right to it as soon as you feel like you want to make one. People who talk about gathering materials and reading books and watching videos until they are "ready" rarely are.

I like the John Strunk quote where someone he knew said he had been "wanting to make a bow for 40 years". John responded "No, you haven't!"

My first bow was a hickory board bow. Watched clay Hayes videos on YouTube. Very informative and saved a lot of mistakes.

Don, you really need some thick leather in your vice. You very well could have ruined the back of that stave.

I tried two bow making get-togethers at my house, both were failures. I supplied the tools, wood and several experienced bow makers to help the beginners. The new guys would watch us work on bows all day but wouldn't touch a thing. All of them said "I might mess something up".

Even when I help someone one on one in my shop I run into the same thing, fear of failure stops them cold.

Out of a dozen or so people that thought they wanted to make a bow, I had one student that took the ball and ran with it and became a very proficient bow maker.

My advice for new guys is to realize right off the bat that failure is part of the bow making process, not the end of the world.

Even us experienced guys break a bow every now and then, no big deal, grab another piece of wood and start over.

My best student to date, Darin

That picture got out of whack somehow.

Well said, Eric. I have never had a person I taught stick with it beyond the bow they left with. I have made hundreds of bows and still went through a rotten streak mid/late last year and had 3 or 4 in a row fail on me. It happens and always will. It's those good ones that put a twinkle in your eye.

Chris, I just placed the stave in the vice to hold the stave on its side for the picture. No pressure on the stave at all. I do have pieces of leather and rubber for when I do want to clamp a stave in the vice.

Chris, I just placed the stave in the vice to hold the stave on its side for the picture. No pressure on the stave at all. I do have pieces of leather and rubber for when I do want to clamp a stave in the vice.

I cut and slit some heavy duty hose and gorilla glued it on my vice jaws. Once in a while I have to re-glue because gorilla glue sucks, but no biggie. Lets me use it up ;)

Also I don't have to remember to put anything in there to pad the bow. The less remembering I have to do, the better :)

It mostly just takes determination. Like an Eric said. You can’t be so afraid of making a mistake that you can’t do anything.

We are all going to make mistakes. It’s what we do after we make them that really matters.

Learn from them. They are hard lessons you probably won’t forget.

Remember no matter how much time, work and money you put into it. It’s still just a piece of wood and you can get another one.

If you are going to try something new try it on some scrap wood first.

If you are serious about learning and making bows. Build yourself some things that you will be happy to have.

A good tillering tree with a scale.

Cauls and forms

Tools. Rasps, draw knives, scrapers, maybe even a bandsaw. Learn how to care for and use them.

If you have good locally grown wood source, harvest wood and prepare it for curing.

While you are young and still learning to tiller but figuring out how to layout and reduce staves closer to bow dimensions do so. I have bows in lots of different stages.

When you get older it really nice to have a bunch of staves reduced to floor tiller waiting for you to finish.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. It’s much easier to teach someone who knows they don’t know everything than someone who just knows they know everything.

For your first attempt don’t make things difficult.

Choose a good wood.

Choose an easier design.

Don’t try to go to short.

Don’t try recurve.

Don’t add a lot of reflex.

So many people, myself included. First attempt is a bow they have always wanted. Usually something far more complicated than a straight long bow.

Understand our vocabulary. Learn to communicate with other bowyers in their language. How and why we build Selfbows the way we do.

I know I said not be so afraid you can’t do anything, but don’t let impatience get you either.

Some things we need to slow down for, but that doesn’t mean we halt everything indefinitely.

Best tip. Just keep making shavings.

Bjrogg

PS if you stick with it and let that first arrow loose you will forget about all the work. You will be greatly rewarded.

Good stuff, BJ.

Her are some vise pats that are easy one and off, I use 3/4 plywood for them and glue on some leather at the contact points.

I have used these for years, they are well worn.

Good grief, I should proof read.

"Here are some vise pads that are easy on and off"

Believe me I know what you are saying Eric. I sure wish you could edit here.

I remember you showing those pictures before. Great idea

Bjrogg

If you can teach a young buck how to process staves it can benefit both of you.

Bjrogg

Splitting

Bjrogg is correct - don't be afraid to fail. I was guilty of this when I first started, I would procrastinate and take forever to move to the next step. "What if I remove too much? What if I violate a ring?" What if, what if..... I finally got a bow close to completion and had it on the tiller board - it exploded as I was approaching full draw length. I just stood there wondering what he heck just happened, then I started chuckling - "good thing I have some more staves ready to go" A post-mortem revealed that I had sever grain run-off on the outer third of my limb - I did a poor job of following the grain of the stave. Lesson learned. If I had let that ruin my day, I may have not continued pursuing my hobby and fizzled out -I'm glad I didn't.

Get on primitive archery forum, and utube, and read, and listen ,and learn, and then get hands on.

Buy yourself a Shinto saw rasp, love mine.

Love mine too, Greg. And the farriers rasp with the orange rubber grips on each end.

Some of my selfbow making tools.

I prefer the Nicholson Handy Rasp with the orange plastic on either end to a farriers rasp with a wooden handle.

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