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avatar is a dumb picture we paste up there of ourselves Smile

Guys, it seems to me that a few issues are being ignored for the sake of convience. How many self-bow users use dacron strings, what space age adhesives were used to glue on those horn nocks or that rawhide backing, what kind of arrows are you shooting? A single branch? What kind of points? Metal manufactured?
Where does one draw the wavy line?

Some guys go the whole nine yards from glues to strings to tools and materials. Some go the whole four yards<IMG src="http://www.websitetoolbox.com/images/boards/smilies/smile.gif" align=absMiddle border=0>

I draw my own wavy line in my Bow Shop. I'm not out to impress anyone or out to meet some other Bowyers ideal of a Selfbow. I'm out to make me a Bow from wood with materials, tools and glues that I feel I want to use. I admire the work of my fellow Brothers of Stickbow Building and will give them a ^5 on any Bow they so desire to build..   I build bows and shoot 3-D and Hunt with my Bows and arrows I make.. That is good enough for an ole man like me Smile

Same here. I dont really care what tools you use to make a bow.

Hey, I'm just jumpin' in here after be out for a while. I have to say that the comment on building a bow, while living in the woods, using rocks, living off the land, and being really, really true to the primative style of bow building - all from information learned from mass published, glossy pictured, magazines, and books ordered from Amazon, and web sites, that's the best one, focused on the topic - WELL that cracks me up! Are we not a funny group or what?   And that fine example of a 'primative compound' bow. "Hey, I just had to build it." I love that stuff. Is this a great country or what? What a fun time to be alive. Thanks for the reminders of where we are. You guys are some of the best.

While I have great respect for those who master primitive skills in crafting their tools, the experience I seek is in the spirit of the hunt and that is not a mystical quality residing in materials or implements. The important thing is to nurture and maintain the connection between the wildness in our hearts and the wildness in the land. That's what I seek using the bow as one of my tools. But I've no desire to become a true primitive. The next time I need dental work I will be grateful for novocaine.

TimBaker Wrote:I'm still wondering when the first wood-slat backed bows were made?

The first known laminated wood bow is from Korekawa, Japan, and has been dated to be 4600 years old. The "wood slats" were of bamboo in this case.   Perhaps surprising to many, wood-backed bows were once common among sustenance hunters / herders within a huge area of land, reaching from Pacific Siberia to Western Norway, and for a very long time. Accurate dates are hard to come by, since the oldest specimens have not been radio-carbon dated. Based on pollen dating, stratigraphy (all of these come from bogs) etc., the oldest of these wood-slat backed bows are about 2000 years old. But just as with the Holmegaards, the complexity of the oldest finds suggest a very long period of development. The vast range and diversity of these North Eurasian wood composites also suggest great antiquity.   Possibly the oldest of all, the Senja bow from northern Norway, and made by early Saami, has a strikingly flat, accurate and polished glueing surface (the belly slat is all that remains of the bow).   The wood composites were made and used in remote Siberian locations into the 1900's, for waterfowling and culling reindeer. A large number of these bows, made by primitive metal age hunters, reside in museums around Scandinavia and Russia. Many are very well made ( flawless glue lines at 100 years of age), and with very basic tools - even saws didn't reach these peoples until well into the 20th century. An axe, a knife, and a primitive spokeshave were all that was needed. Fish skin glue and thin birch bark, attached firmly around the bow by heat-shrinking, were used to attach the compression pine (or larch) belly to the (usually thin) birch back.

hey all i just signed on and subscribed to the journal. my name is jamie leffler. i was previously mentioned in keenans post and just thought id throw my two cents in. tim is correct with what he is saying but there is a lot of truth in what everyone has said. ive built bows for around ten years now and im sure ive built well over 100 bows by now. as far as im concerned if you enjoy archery have fun with it . even with a compound . for me its not enough challenge to go to the store and buy a bow. i want it to be mine. ive bought bows with glass and wheels and sold everyone of them because the magic wasnt there. i shot better and scored better with most of my glass bows but again didnt enjoy it. ive gone into the woods for a week with nothing and walked out with a bow a full belly. thats the challenge i like. however even these bows have been influenced by my modern day knowledge. after reading through the encyclopedia of north american bows and seeing bows in museums mine look modern in comparison. to each his own and enjoy whatever challenge you are up for.   one quick note on something that bothers me with modern archery is when i hear hunters using wheels and tell me they like archery for the challenge. that is one statement that raises the hair on my neck. especially when they make jokes about how tough i make it on myself shooting what i shoot. you want a challenge then make it a challenge. im done . peace jamie

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