OK, Time for all of you experienced bowyers (the more tragic the experience the better)to shine some light for us newbies. How about a short verse on the jewels of wisdom you've gleamed over the years.

In the "Thy shalt not" format, what are some of the cardinal rules we must follow in order to end up with more that nice looking kindlin.

Example: "Thy shalt not tiller for more than 10 minutes without checking out results on the tillering tree."

Thou shalt not be in a hurry to reduce thy stave.

Thou shalt not begin working on thy hardgotten stave with power tools.

Thou shalt not over hurry thy wood to dry.

Thou shalt not prematurely bend wet wood on the tillering device.

Thou shalt not overdry thy wood.

Thou shall not draw thy roughed bow over 15 pounds more than its desired final weight.

Thou shalt not tiller with a beltsander. :)

thanks for the idea for this thread. I may have to print this one.

Kyle

Thou shall not use a whitewood.

(hee hee)

Thou shall not use wet wood.

Thou shall not strain the bow past it's intended draw weight at ANY time.

Thou shall not use wood worthy of a 70# bow to make a 45# youth's bow.

Never show off your bow in a room with a ceiling fan

Thou shalt not work on tillering while in a foul mood! Haaaa! I'll have to remember that one.

thou shalt not use white wood - figures I'd start bowbuilding out going against the "thou shalt's", too. Thanks, Jawge. ;o)

Thanks, I knew you guys would come through with flying colors.

I can feel the pain of many of those hard learned lessons. Hopefully this way I won't have to repeat them all, just a few! LOL

Keep em comming

Heres an important one for newbies..

Thy shalt not try to build a bow design beyond thy capapbilities

Thy first few bows shall be of straight clean wood

Thy first few bows shall be overbuilt

Thy first few bows shall be wider and longer and generally lighter in weight than the bows thy will eventually build

Thy shall forget statics and recurves and rf/df designs and short bows and narrow limbs and centershot bows etc until thy has the talent to pull them off

Thy first few bows shall be built to a draw length of 28" or less and to a poundage of 55# or less

Thy shalt not worry about "making weight" on thy's first few bows but shall instead worry about making thy first few bows tiller as good as it can be

thou shall not do anything that Murray said not to do. (he was very right)

thou shall not take your first bow stave outta Rusty's garbage bucket

thou shall not use any power tools until you have built at least 5 bows with hand tools.

And the most important:

thou shall not live more then 30 miles from Rusty, so you can go get help when in trouble.

Mike

Thy shalt not be a slave to the ruler and straight edge. Strongbow.

strongbow,

If these are brand new bowyers they better strat that ruler straight edge, calipers and other measuring devices to their tool belt and use them often. After a few bows you develop an eye for it, but you better meaure the first few anyway.

Mike

"Thou shalt not craft thy bows in poor light"

"Only the high priests of bowyery shalt use power tools, and that after sanctification and prayer"

"Thou shalt not draw or shoot thy naked and unfinished bow in the rain"

"Thou shalt not trust in the judgement of the ignorant or unlearned for thy layout or tillering"

"Thou shalt not breathe the dust from thy bowmaking, lest ye die"

pablo....lol

one question here fellas.....which is it....never draw past intended draw weight or 5# over or 15# over? I've heard all three and thats a big range. Does it have more to do with wood type/moisture content? just a question for clarification.

Kyle

Kyle, I never draw over the intended draw weight during the tillering to full draw..I get the limbs working and balanced pretty early on, and so the reduction and fine tillering leave me with a pretty decent finish.I don't lose but a pound or so at the most after the shooting in for the fine tillering-finish..jim

" Thou shalt not continue to tiller thy bow when thy wife is uncovered before thee and beckoning thee to bed"

Thanks Jim....about the weight question and as for the other point you made...well DUH. I agree wholeheartedly.

Kyle

Thou shall not tellest leatherwall bretheren of our most embarrasing bowyerisms, for thou could be shunded and laughed upon , forcing the bowyer to spendith more time in the tillering dungeon, and hencforth reduce thy chances of thy wife becoming uncovered or showing pleasant enthusiasm when he pursues her.

Thou shalt not leave the back of your green osage stave uncoated with shellac for more than 5 minutes after you remove the bark or sapwood.

Thou shall not try to cut the side profile on a wavy stave in one pass on a band saw.You will end up with a bow limb 3/4" thick on one side and 1/16" thick on the the other.

Thou shalt not day dream while following a lay out line on your band saw.

Above all resist the urge to grab something that cuts wood faster while tillering.

Thou shalt hand a strung selfbow tillered to 26" to anyone who can scratch their ankle with out bending over.

This is for my friend Buzzy. Thou shalt not cut the nocks backward to the back of the bow they are supposed to go to the belly.

Thou shalt not ever attempt to make a selfbow, but instead thou shalt buy thy selfbows from John Strunk, Java Man or Joe Don Jones, in order to simplify thy life, and preserve thy body and sanity.

"Thou shalt not curse the wood, or your efforts"

"Thou shalt not complain of thy tools, no matter how humble"

"Thou shalt not draw thy near completed bow fully without an arrow, nor shalt thou do so without much thought and contemplation"

"Thou shalt not cut through the back of thy self-bow tips for the string nocks, unless ye have fortified them"

"Thou shalt not use any unreliable string material or unwise workmanship"

"Thou shalt not fail to keep your tools and workspace in good repair and order"

" Thou shalt not neglect thine own safety or that of others"

"Thou shalt not forget to be thankful for the gift of the wood and thine abilities, tho they be humble"

"Thou shalt not attempt to craft any self-wood bow which shall have a working limb shorter than the arrow's draw"

"Thou shalt not fail to harken to the wood and be attentive to it's potential as you work it"

"Thou shalt not fail to make allowance for pins, knots, curls, bug holes, fire damage, rot,or visible weakness in thy wood"

" Thou shalt not neglect to ask for help, or to lay the work aside for thought, when thou art against the wall"

Thou shall not attempt to make bows beyond your ability.

Thou shall not dishonestly judge ones own ability to craft wood into a weapon

Thou shall not be disgraced by only fabricating flat long bows.

Thou shall not attempt to fabricate bows less than 2X ones own draw length.

Thou shall not work inferior bow wood and not be surprised why it end up in two pieces if you do.

Thou shall not get discouraged if several bows self distruct some time during the tillering process.

Cooter, I tried to stay away from the 'inferior wood' stuff..:) Lord knows I'm pretty opinionated on that..:)..

Keep smiling..Always remember this, you may call it fetrow's hard-nosed axiom:

The time and effort required to attempt to make a working bow from a marginal stave or from questionable wood will be at least as much as will be expended upon a decent stave from fitting wood...often more, and with the efforts on the former,mostly frustrating and wasted as it concerns bows that work..:)jim

1) Thou shalt not covet thy wife's good cookpot for steaming bow wood. (You'll burn if you scorch it.)

2) Thou shalt not leave a steam tube unattended on the stove. (The insulating blanket may burn if you do.)

3) If thou violates rule 2 and the blanket in fact burns, thou shalt throw the flaming, blanketed tube out the back door. (The cabinets WILL burn if you don't.)

4) If it comes that thou must comply with rule 3, thou shalt not empty a fire extinguisher on the flaming steam tube. (The grass WILL burn if you do and won't grow for many months to come.)

5) Thou shalt keep thy heat gun moving. (The wooden bow will burn if you don't.)

6) Though shalt not grind horn tips when thy wife is home. (You'll burn when thy wife smells burnt horn.)

7) Rule 6 also applies to burning feathers.

8) And heat gunning bow wood.

9) Thou shalt not allow osage shavings to hitch a ride on dirty clothes into the laundry pile. (Again you'll burn when your wife pulls out yellow white wash.)

10) Thou shalt also not give up selfbowyery after being burned at the stake endlessly by thy wife for his efforts. (Since thou will probably burn there anyway.)

well, tho the original post was concerning newer crafters, and was choreographed around "thou shalt NOTs.."

How about we transition to things even a newer crafter can do, learn and practice and put them in the more positve: "THOU SHALT.." mode?

here's a start:

"Thou shalt purpose in thine heart to learn and do thy best at this and all endeavors, and be not discouraged by setbacks"

"Thou shalt attend to thy family and business first and foremost"

"Thou shalt learn of the tillering boot, the scale, rope, pulley"

"Thou shalt become discerning as it concerns good bow wood"

"Thou shalt spend some time with archaic english literature and other old fogies so you can understand these admonitions..:)"

"Thou shalt

Thou shall share freely what has been freely shared with themselves.

Thou shall judge their success in bow making relative to the last bow you made and not by the bow someone else holds in their hand.

Thou shall learn from past endevours not by future plans.

Thou shall earn respect within our comunity and not demand it.

thou shall not accept mediocrety but attemt to better it.

Thou shalt not test the backwards bend of thy unfinished bow.....CRACK!

:(

rws

Thou shall tiller SLOWLY.

ye shall not forget when in a pickle ask many questions. ye shall not forget to learn from mistakes. patience is a virtue and a must. ye shall not to forget to have much fun. >~rob~>

Thou shall not use a tillering stick unless thou haseth a helmet on. He He. Jawge

Thou must remember to exercise the wife and/or the bow after weight has been removed from the belly. Unlike a good marriage your bow is only as strong as the weakest point, you cannot talk out your feelings with a hinge. Thou must be aware of any creaking or moaning sounds from your wife/bow, ignore these sounds at your peril.

Thou shall not unduly stress the wood or yourself. After all it is only wood and the trees are still growing. Thou shall heed what has been said in this thread.

Thou shall look a whole bunch more than one scrapes

Thou shall scrape only after looking

Thou shall measure twice before heading to the bandsaw

Thou shall use in order, eyes, brain ...any tool

Thou shall consider consequences before laying tool to wood

Thou shall memorize these Principles of bow limbs/tillering

1 Limbs must be thin enough to bend

2.Wood is 8 X stronger in thickness than in width: take 1/8" off limb width = not much difference in draw weight take 1/8" off belly = a lot of difference in bow weight.

3.Limbs must continuously taper from end of fade to near limb tip.

4.Neither limb must be significantly thicker/stronger than the other.

5.Each part of a limb must bend properly

too little bend = flat spot too much bend = hinge.

6.Each "problem" at each stage of draw must be corrected before limb is bent any further.

Thou shall learn from the mistakes of others.

Thou shall take ones draw knife too a new stave and not final a scraper to final tiller a bow after an argument with the Mrs.

Thou shall set the tools down and walk away from your bow wannabe for a day when you become frustrated.

Thou shall come to the leather wall when in need of help, moral support, or mental abuse. All of which can lift ones spirit.

Thou shall not try out the newly completed kids bow on pillow "while wife is looking"!!!!!!!!

Thou shall not use 5 minute epoxy on wraps to save time.

Thou shalt reduce the stave judiciously, mindful that what has been removed may never be recovered;

Thou shalt pursue tiller as a cat pursues a winged bird, with great patience;

Thou shalt achieve final tiller with finishing tools, lest ye suffer a bow of inferior weight;

Thou shalt intend to increase one's know by each endeavor, knowing that failures are knowledge for thy future endeavors.

Steve

Thou shalt not walk away from a bow limb steaming in a pot over a Coleman stove and forget completely about what you were doing.Amazing how the smell of wood smoke jars the memory back to the task at hand.

Thou shalt not pass a display of C-clamps without buying at least 5 or 6 to go with the 40 you already have.

An other ancient Leatherwall gem. Enjoy :-)

All these people... Jawge

Thou shall not tiller, scrape, sand, or otherwise take material away from your stave with one hand and imbibe of a brewed barley and hops beverage in the other.

Lots of religion going on hear !!

Unless I missed it, Thou shall NOT VIOLATE A RING!!!!!

I don't think there is a certain weight over your draw weight, you should never draw past your intended finished weight.

Thou shall pray to and give tidings to the self-bow gods.

Jawge, Jeff Durnell, Pearl Drums, Erick Krewson and many others that I have left out......Ha!Ha!

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