I have been making self-bows for 20 years but had it on my mind in 1957 as a farm kid in Kansas with oodles of Osage. My oldest books are from the 50's and only one ( The complete book of archery) had some how-to stuff in it like Tom Jennings making a Laminated Smithwick clone for Kittredge Bow Hut. At this point, I have quite a collection of Archery books and the only ones that have some "how-to" in them are  "Hunting with a bow and arrow by Saxton Pope 1923 for making a Yew bow" and "Archery Tackle- how to make it and use it by Adolph Shane 1936 that did have Osage instructions like following the grain". As a farm kid, my source of information was mainly from outdoor magazines. Some friends who saw saw me playing with my Lemonwood bow would say, " you should make one out of Hedge (Osage). I was very interested but when I asked about the How , they would say things about cutting a piece of Osage and sink it in a flowing stream to season it?? Anyway, I missed out on a lot with all the hedge posts setting around so I guess I didn't dig deep enough. Any other old guys out there with similar stories?

I wonder if old George Herter sold anything on that back in the day.  Seems like he had about everything a kid could dream of.   

Well in 1957, for me, all the info was in a place I never wanted to go to unless it was absolutely necessary for school..... the Library.     

Deno

I started my bow building journey in 1957 with the instructions of my boy scout master. He had all of us (maybe like 8 scouts) build a bow from 1/4" hickory slats if I am remembering correctly. But I had already built a bow from a window shade slat and a piece of string from chalk line. Used a milk weed for an arrow with a coke top bent over the end for a arrowhead.  I shot my cousin in the leg with it during the indian  war, his cap pistol was no match. I did get a pretty good reward from my Mother for that one.

James

You should check out the Tradgang Digital Store for Dean's book...

https://digitalstore.tradgang.com/

I made limb bows out of green wood when I was 9 or 10, they shot about 20 yards. It wasn't until the late 80s or early 90s that really good bow making information became available. A friends homemade bow peaked my interest and I just happened to live in osage country so off I went.

The only book I had access to as a kid was the Witchery of Archery. That was in the 50s.
I just strung saplings for bows. We fletched tiny saplings with chicken feathers and tipped them with nails. Fun.
Jawge

I guess I built bows as a kid. I assume every kid that watched cowboys and indians did the same. But, it was in the 80's that I really became interested in archery with a Shakespeare recurve I recovered from an abandoned storage shed. Shortly after that I got interested in building selfbows. In 1987 I ordered "The Bowyers Craft" from Jay Massey then shortly after, in 1990 "The Book Of Primitive Archery", also by Jay(both signed to me) and Paul Comstock's "The Bent Stick" and the snowball was rolling and building.

Back then, what library would order such? Thank goodness for the internet, library apps and free books!

And TradGang!