Feel free to elaborate on types and level of successes as well.
I don't remember if this has ever been asked. I'm not sure if I know how many I have made but I will try to come up with a rough quess. I want to keep a log of them starting now. Who they go to ...
I was thinking about Tim Baker and how many he's had to have made by now. Staggers the mind.
0 :( thus far. 2 failed and working on number 3.
Somewhere close to 150 tillered. I have a pile of 30 or so that I haven't finished though :) . I'm easily distracted...ooh look something shiny!
I have broken at least 20 that were close to being done or done. Probably 20 more that were in some stage less than that.
There was a time I was making 10 bows a month. Now it's more like 10 bows a year. But they are much better bows.
No where near Johns count but close to 100
Somewhere around 40 that have made it. Broken around 10 or 15 more. Most that broke were laminated bows, only broken a couple selfbows. I used to think laminated bows were harder to break. That couldve been why I broke so many of them, I wasnt taking my time and using as much patience with them as I would with a selfbow.
John! A squirrel!
Don't know for sure but somewhere over a hundred I would guess. Hope the wife doesn't read this. Most have been glass laminated recurves and longbows. Did finish up a couple of osage bows years back, still have them. Broke several other wooden ones. Good wood is not to plentiful around here and never have got into the board bows. In my opinion wooden bows are the zenith of the bowyers craft.
One kids bow was fairly successful (poor tiller). One blown up and another on the way.
4 completes and a bunch of fire wood. :bigsmyl:
I guess about 25.
5 youth bows and 6 adult bows. All wood, some backed some not. Number 7 adult bow is drying in the form as I type. Probably an equal amount of broken bows as well. If I didnt have a stinkin' job I could get alot more built!
Tween 50 and 100 glass and 2 self.
Shoulda kept track better I guess!
Two for now; another three on the way by the end of spring
One is good, one blew up two months after being complete.
6 straight glass longbows (about to start another for my swap bow), 1 takedown recurve, 1 BBO from a Dryad blank, 1 Hickory backed ipe (2 others that failed), 1 kids oak board bow, and 1 Maddog Pup blank.
I'm still on the upslope of the learning curve so each one gets better than the last.
Not really sure. :dunno:
Well I remember I built close to 40 the first year, and 20-30 per year for 10 years. I bet I spend more time cooking bows that cooking dinner.
I've completed around 15 and have at least that many in pieces. I also have a stack of 10-12 that need a little work to finish.
4 adult self bows from staves I cut, 1 kids bow (hikory strip with a walnut riser. Broke one red oak board pyrimad bow cause the glued on riser popped off and it blew while stringing it.
Maybe a dozen here.
A few board bows, a few self bows, a few child bows, a few adult bows, a few experiments, and a few catastrophes!
I even tried tillering a hockey stick once. They don't laminate those things to be bent!
CJ
around 60 sinew backed tribal bows around 30 or so of different designs and still learning everytime I make a bow
I broke seven before I made one. does that count?
God bless you all, Steve
Steve, it ALL counts.
CaptainJ, that's what I call experimenting.
Did someone say the old job gets in the way? Thankful to have one but I hear you.
Between 50 and 75 glass backed longbows and recurves, 20-30 self, sinew and bamboo backed bows. I used to make a lot more than I do now.
ONE! It's a red oak board bow about 35# @ 29".
I have two in the works now. I plan on one or two more before I start my swap bow. All I am doing is learning right now. Hopefully I will have some decent skills by the time I make the swap bow.
3 Shooter's and a few kindling stiks lol
133 shooters, 20 or 30 that didn't make the grade. Winding down a bit on the bow building and branching out to building flintlock rifles.
I will always make bows and teach how to make bows but the drive to really crank them out like I did in the past is gone.
6 glass one piece longbow: they seem to look less like a block one at a time.
4 laminated longbows: all good firewood
1 bambo backed walnut: very fun to shoot
2 three piece longbows; first one is 'back in the shop' being fit with a new riser (original cracked) second one is very fast it I was big enough to get it to full draw.
Several self bows (mostly unsuccessful)
A dozen or so kids bows...
A few BBI's.
All told I am in the low 30's or high 20's...I build slow, maybe two or three a year...and have only been at it about six years.
2 self bows,1 glass and so far 3 composites and the list of failuers
4 selfbows
1 glass bow
10 composites
I would say about a dozen so far both self bows & laminated wood bows and probably broke at least half that many. I am working on a couple of selfbows right now. This is the time of year when I really get the bug.
I have probably have built about a dozen or so both self bows and laminated wood bows and probably broke at least half that many. This is the time of the year when I really get the bug to build bows.
32... all glass lam traditional longbows... most are straight, 6 are string follow and 1 reflexed. 4 were hinged take downs. I keep a careful log and can refer back to layup formulas and construction details on all. I'd be lost if I didn't do that!
I would guess 100 to 150 but I haven't kept count. Mostly selfbows but some boo or hickory backed bows and one or two tri-lam bows. I did build one Bungham straight limbed glass longbow but it blew up before I ever braced it. d;^)
I am right there with Pat, close to 150, I do the self bow thing for my own sanity and to get away from the calipers.
Bert. :cool:
14 is the best count I can come up with so far. Most of the 14 are adult bows. Then there are the 2 dozen or so kids bow. Most of the adult bows were bamboo backed osage or pecan, with a couple of selfbows thrown in. I've got 2 more nearly done.
6 that are shooters so far, all self bows, and a pile of fire wood......Dan
I'm somewhere just shy of 60. I've built an assortment of bows, but all wooden.
I forgot about rattan kids bows. That puts my total somewhere around Tim Baker territory :)
2 glass bows.
Over 50 bamboo backed bows, best I can figure.
Around 10 hickory backed bows. Done with them.
30 or more selfbows, of at least 10 different types of wood, but at least half of them osage. Osage is all I'll spend my time on anymore.
I'm moving out of bow building and into guitar making for the next couple of years. My bow curiosity is satisfied for now.
i built 1 so far, im workin on 2 as we speak . 1 for the tg bow swap and 1 for bernie. ruddy
At least a couple of hunnert and probably more. 2-300 maybe. I started in '89 right after Dad died. I've broken 100 or so too. I've been plunked on the head and bled on most of those in one from or another even the ones that became shooters. This is no pastime for the faint of heart. But I'm having fun. It has been a journey. My youngest daughter, who is 29 years old and about to be married just said to me, "Dad, I want to start shooting with you." Ah the magic words. I want to start this week making her a bow from a red oak board I found in my Dad's shop just after he died....and her journey begins. :) Jawge
I not realy sure either over 100 selfbows in the last 23 years I think. Every tpye of wood every design and leanth,poundage at one time or another.
But the last 10 or 12 years I only build a couple a year for myself,friends very seldom do I build one to sell. I get offers everyyear but I reather do some sort of a trade.
I am up to 6, and out of those, 2 are finished, 1 is supposed to be finished, but I plan on adding tip flip and sinew, and 1 broken yew ELB.
3 are osage
1 is Yew
1 is IPE/Boo
Hey George, that's really cool!
Bona's right. That IS cool, Gawge!
I've managed to end up with three adult bows that shoot. Two are red oak board pyramid bows. One of those is paper-backed and both are underweight. The third is the HBH I made last summer and used to take my first bow kill. I also gave away a kid bow of red oak and I kept a red oak kid bow with recurved tips that is fun to shoot. I've broken 5 board bows in the process. Several years ago I attempted to make selfbows from ash, cedar, sassafrass, and dogwood. Each failed. (No TG back then!)
Oh, yeah! Last summer I attempted an osage billet bow that broke my heart prior to working on the hickory.
Right now I'm working on two osage staves. Learning how to "chase a ring."
:bigsmyl:
Stan
One bow out of pine, blew
one out of hackberry (harvested tree) learned about hinges
got a chance to harvest osage this far south, super crooked, still laying around.
went to glass
3 60" recurve shooters
5 68" RD Longbows
2 68" TakeDown Longbows
back to wood lately,
54" redoak kids bow
48" redoak kids bow
68" redoak target bow 30# or so
I sure do admire those that can make self bows, Pat B comes to mind. :thumbsup:
I have built around 75-80 selfbows, 90% of which were from Osage (rarely use any other wood now), 9 or 10 BBO/BBI's, and 17 glass bows. The past several years I have slowed down to only making 8-10 bows a year and instruct/oversee the building of close to that amount. I have lost (the diplomatic term for exploded) 8 or 9 bows during both pre and post construction.
I am just finishing up bow #4, all glass laminated bows. 3 r/d longbows and the one I am just finishing is a recurve to replace my old Ben Pearson fishing bow. My next bow is going to be the swap bow, followed by a couple of kid bows for 2 of my girls, 8 and 10. I have a list of 4 or five more bows that I want to do after those. This is an addictive and fun hobby.
Over 200 now. My bows are usually Penobscot or Mik Maq warbows now. I have made lots of longbows and replicas.I got into Hickory backed bows for a while mainly red oak. Got away from it for a while health reasons but I am now off at it again and have started a Maple longbow and a White Ash Penobscot. Its good to be back.
out of 147 attempts I have yet made a shooter..I just suck in making bows..but one day I will when I hire someone to teach me
About 85 glass laminated, 5 wood laminated and a couple selfbows. And a couple plain board bows. Myself I like building glass bows best. Mark
probably 20-25 in the 3 years i've been building, all self bows.
bonna in the last 28 years i cant even count and add a heck of a bunch a kids bows to that id say well over 500 in the last 28 years iv got 37 settin there to finish now lol brock
Just under 900 glass bows to date.
Took me 14 years to do it. Just a few in the early years. Now abou 4 to 5 a week.
15 months in and 71 shooters, all wood
i only have about thirteen bows under my belt. three broke while learning how to make them before i knew how to pick good wood. and another two broke while giving the bow some back pressure after shooting them. and one kids bow broke that was just made from some scrap wood i had laying around. its cool as i look back and see the learning process that i have taken! nice love this stuff. oh and all of them were board bows except one.
About 80.
The respones to this thread has been really cool. Some of the perserverence (sp) mentioned here is outstanding.
15 sucessful bows,one that broke at full draw, 5 or so half bult bows and many more bows built in my head while daydreaming.
This thread is really cool. Someone asked me this recently, after some thoughts, I've concluded that I've probably made about 30 bows over the last 16 years, its a slow process for me. All selfbows or laminated. My last ten have been really good bows and have been completed in the last four years. I'm getting good at this after 15 years.
I probably have enough materials to make another 20 great bows, so I'll finish those sometime in the next 10 years.
I haven't kept exact #'s but something like 25 longbows and 8 or 9 takedown recurves. All laminated glass bows. It's too much fun to stop!! I just hope I never have too.
Don
Numbers are a funny thing... I know there for about 5 years or so I was building over 15 bows a year... But seems like I get around 5-10 these day per year... Made all different types and different woods... I even made a few out of Crepe Myrtle... Never had one break or fail... Also, I have given every bow made to a friend or someone who had an interest in self bows and never sold one... It's a hobby and like most hobbies comes enjoyment and $$$ makes it seem like work and I have a 8-5 job already... Never made a bow for myself for some odd reason... Guess I'm still looking to build the perfect one... :)
I just finished tillering my frist bow last night.