I have always loved bows, since I was a little boy in the early sixties. I like them all and have shot everything from selfbows to compounds and even crossbows. I just love shooting.

But, Trad has been my first love and the most rewarding. Yes, I have several laminated bows and they are a blast to shoot and to hunt with.

But, the most rewarding of all to shoot, to hunt with and to build is the various selfbows. I have recently embarked on building risers and using laminated limbs for them and they are cool, nice bows but.

But I seem to always drift back to my selfbows and of course, wood arrows. I have made several selfbows and a boardbow or two. I am not a bowyer, I am a tinkerer that has learned a few things about building selfbows.

The most fun for me to build and to shoot is the Bendy Bow. They just seem to remind me of my ancestors in so many ways. No special grip except for a wrap and maybe a little bit of clearance for the arrow.

I find myself grabbing one of my Bendy Bows and wood arrows to hunt with. My favorite is only 59" long and is 41# at 26". Yes, it has a little set in it but this little Osage bow spits the arrows out and shoots very good for me. Wood arrows shoot just fine, besides, they look awesome and flat do the trick.

This little bow doesn't take up much space and is very handy in a ground blind set up. So, every once in a while I get the urge to shoot a laminate bow and so I do but it usually doesn't take very long for me to end back up with the Bendy bow in hand.

Some day I will back it with snakeskin but for now, it has a little bit of paint on it. Fun to shoot and a joy to hunt with, yeah, gotta love it! Jerry

Jay Massey's favorite bow in his later years was a 55", sinew- backed, pignut hickory, that was about 75# at 25" draw...which is about what he drew it. He was known for challenging some of his clients to flight shooting and beat many of them who were shooting recurve laminated bows. I can only imagine what would happen if I tried that, my right clavicle would probably be next to my left rib. :)

I am working in a self bow. 1 inch wide, 453@25. Red oak board. Jawge

Sorry 45 lbs. at 25"

Seems to be most humans' nature to unnecessarily complicate the simplest of things.

Most, but not all.

Great post!!

Jawge I love your bow and your smile .Keep em coming!

Thanks, Arvin. Nice of you to say. Jawge

I made the switch to 100% selfbows about 12 years ago. I have made all my own using Osage, and don’t see ever going back to laminated bows. Every one has its own unique features and personalities.

And there’s no better feeling for me than kneeling over a mature deer taken with a homemade bow from a tree I cut down and cut away everything that didn’t want to be a bow.

I just finished the last coat of Truoil on one yesterday and hopefully I can get a money shot to post in the next couple of days. Spent the day today cutting down some trees, splitting into pieces I could haul out on my shoulder, for future staves to work with. I’ll be busy getting the bark and sapwood off for awhile now.

Great looking bow George.

How about some pictures? It sounds like a nice bendy bow.

Yeah let’s see some pics. I have some mulberry, I cut last year I will start on soon.

Thanks, bentstick. Jawge

No bow is finer than a nicely crafted osage selfie.

My thoughts as well, Bob.

I've made exactly two self bows in my life, both of nice well- aged white ash staves. Both took a set, both took forever to make (bowyer stupidity applied in mass quantities) and neither shot well for me (sort of like one of the alder bows I made when I was 10). But they didn't break!! I'm very proud of that.

And despite the misery of it all, the carefully wasted hours of cutting, stripping, drawshaving, scraping and watching arrows zip away off the shelf like lead pipes on a windy day, I STILL think a well-made self bow is absolutely the coolest bow around. Those who make, hunt with and shoot them well deserve all the respect than any archer can expect, especially those guys (like Jawge, he da' man!) that can whip one out of a tree limb faster than face slaps in a skeeter' factory.

All that said, I'll never attempt to make or hunt with a self bow again. Wood arrows (abolutely luv'em) yes, selfbows no. Because Hunting in these parts is tough beans. Not alot of good chances at game, and when that chance happens I'd prefer to have the outcome not hinge on whether the bow performs ok (I have enough trouble with my own performance to worry about that).

So hats off to the self bow masters, may they live long and prosper (especially Jawge)! I'll think of y'all the next time I happen to notice my old sorry-ash failures, still hanging in the darkness of the cellar where I left them, still waiting for someone to love them. Or for a day when I need some extra kindling. Whichever comes first.

Like I said, I am not a bowyer. These have some set but have kept their poundage up and shoot very well for me. I have been hunting with these bows. I hope to get better with more bows made but really no complaints. Each one has its own character and that is just part of the cool factor for me.

Altec, thanks for the kind words.

I remember at the Pokenhope, many years ago, where we first met, you and Chuck kindly let me tag along. Much appreciated.

Oh and my second self bow wasn't that good either. My 250th is much better. :)

Jawge

Good thread!:)

Who don’t like simplicity?;)

Tradslinger, those are mighty fine looking bows. You are a bowyer! Jawge

Mr. Jawge, those were some great shoots at the Poke N' Hope, weren't they? Will always remember the days with you and Chuck on those courses, they are the kind of thing we remember as we grow older. I hope you are in good health, my friend.

Tradslinger, George is right, you're a bowyer but you just don't know it yet, lol. Great-looking bows, nice job on the pics too.

George, thank you but I am but a beginner as so many are. The object is to learn as we go and to make improvements. In spite of some imperfections on my part, I will continue to hunt with these even if I make better ones. it is all part of the journey and the allure I guess. The deer won't know to complain about them, but we plan to eat them LOL. I just wish that I could see and feel better to be able to make some real heads, stone heads. But it is what it is and one has to learn to be thankful for what one can still do. My Friends James and Greg have inspired me to make this journey and I am thankful to them. Jerry

I just wanted to add, making a selfbow is of course a challenge but not really that bad of one. I would suggest building a board bow or two first. watch videos, read books and ask questions. Once you feel comfortable with the board bow builds, then look at a stave type bow. But I will warn you, once you make your first decent selfbow, it will get into your blood. There are a lot of choices of woods out there but Osage is hard to beat. Hickory is abundant and makes a great bow too. I wish that I had done this 40 years ago.

I've been doing it for 25 years and wish I was doing it 40 years ago too. I thought archery and bowhunting was 'my life' but was naive and out of touch. Wasting time. Wasting my precious time. Not no more.

Here’s what I started with on my latest attempt. Experimenting on how far I can sneak a bow out of a piece of Osage.

Here’s what I coaxed out it. 46# @ 28”. 66” ntn.

looks like some good coaxing. heat and steam are our friends, well, most of the time. I need to make a couple smaller youth bows, just need to stop and do it. Got 4 grandkids that want one.

Bentstick, awesome tiller. Really well done! Jawge

tradslinger...nice job sir... you know that we do a little bow building at most of our TBA shoots... Terry Hughes, Mike Yancey, and several others do a pretty good job of building and teaching...

Self bows and wood arrows are anything but simple compared to fiberglass bows and carbon arrows

A selfbow is a bent stick and string. A simple as archery gets.

Simple and easy aren't the same thing.

Not dissing self bows or wood arrows by any means but making and maintaining either is more intensive than modern materials.

What is there to maintaining a selfbow? I've never done a thing different to them, some I've been shooting over 20 years.

The only way making modern material bows and arrows is easier or simpler is if we pay to have much of the work done for us.

To make laminated glass/wood bows, I've hunted the tree I wanted, cut it down, seasoned the wood, sawn it into lumber, resawed the lams, ground them to precise tapers before glue up. Doing it that way, there's every bit as many man hours and physical labor in making a glass bow as in making a selfbow, and probably more.

And yet you will go on and on about building a self bow and how much knowledge it takes ad naseum but now it is just a stick. Wood arrows take much more effort than carbon or aluminum. If simple you want , a laminated bow with matched aluminum is as simple as it gets. I also get and admire self bows and wood arrows and the extra skill level it takes to make and to shoot well.

Not much to do maintenance on different from lams. I will put another coat of oil on a bow occasionally. I keep them in my house, up on nails out of the way. Wax the string, keep in dry place. I had thought that having to string and unstring the bow would be a pain but it is nothing of the sort.

Wood arrows... once they are sealed, just pretty much the same, avoid breaking them. I probably treat them worse than most but I see them as pretty durable. I have and shoot just about all kinds of arrows like a lot of you do. But some of you may do a lot more than I do and that is okay, it is what you do.

Chairman, it’s just a stick, but there’s a lot of knowledge in the making of a selfbow. From knowing what type of wood, how to pick a suitable tree, how to read the grain, and the removal of all the wood that does not want to be a bow. Different woods need to be treated different, and designs need to be matched to the type of wood.

BUT once you’re done, it’s just a simple stick. But not just any stick will make a bow.

There’s a lot of knowledge needed to make a successful laminated bow also. Types of laminations, combination of thicknesses and tapers, glues, finishes and much more.

Once sealed from moisture, I don’t treat my selfbows any different than I kept my laminated recurves and longbows. Other than I don’t leave them strung when I’m done shooting them, but then I always unstrung my laminated bows when done shooting also.

Same with my wood arrows, other than I need to straighten one every now and then.But that usually is the result of someone not pulling them out of the target straight.

Pretty simple in both cases, glass sandwich or self. You either do it or you read about others doing it. One has his sheet straight and one just regurgitates Google information.

I have made my own osage bows and cedar arrows. I hunt with them as my primary archery weapons, and have for over 55 years. I also own a variety of selfbows from a dozen well known bowyers, all unique and treasured. I never had a reason to want alternative archery equipment, but I fully understand why others do.

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