Thinking of making frist bow

[twitchstick]

I was thinking of making my frist bow. I am looking for good resources. Any sugestions on books,supliers,tools,and costs. I am thinking of reflex/deflex long bow. And please consider that I am tight on money.

[Greg Owen]

I am in the same boat. Go into the Bowyers Bench forum and scroll down through the threads. I have scrolled through all the pages. I think its over 20 pages. You will find a wealth of information. Do you want to build a laminated bow or a board bow? There was just a great build-a-long on a board bow. I was thinking of trying that but I decided to go with a laminated bow. Spend a bit of time and there is a ton of information here.

[twitchstick]

I think that I want to build a laminated bow. I have the same problem I started to read this form the bow build along,big mistake that was.

[Greg Owen]

Ok, so let me tell you what I did. I ordered a premade riser from 3rivers. It is 17" which seems to be odd size and was 2 times the cost of a riser block. I have to borrow tools to do some of the work so I thought I'd concentrate on the glue up for my first test. I oredered my lams and glue from  http://kennyscustomarchery.com/
Kenny was a great guy to deal with. I haven't gotten them yet but from what I read they will be top notch.  Now I need to build a form and an oven and then the fun begins. This is my experience and your mileage may vary.

[Swissbow]

I made my first laminated bow about two months ago. I made a couple of mistakes but all in all it turned out ok and the bow shoots very nicely. Now for the second one of course I want to do better. I got very good information from Kenny ( kennym ) and Marty ( apex predator ) about how much stack to use, how much taper and so on to get to the desired draw weight. There are a lot of guys that can and will give you all the information you need.

[jsweka]

Kenny and Marty are a wealth of information and have recently answered some questions about stack thickness I had.

Another good source is Bingham's Projects.  http://www.binghamprojects.com/   That's how I started and a lot of others too.  They have everything you need (laminations, how-to videos, blueprints, hardware, tools, etc.) and are very helpful in answering questions.  Also, if you follow their plans, and order their lamination kits, you will come very close to your intended draw weight.

For your first bow, you will need to build a form and a hot box with adds to the price.  So all together you'll probably have about $350 - $400 in it.  It gets cheaper after that, and once you've built one, you'll definitely want to build another.

Good luck!

[Innocente]

for a dirt cheap start in bowmaking, first go to sam harper's site:
 http://poorfolkbows.com/index.html  

to watch video of the trickier parts of introductory bowmaking:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37EPS0Xs_Tw  

total cost for a board bow:
board: $6
Backing (linen, fiberglass tape, etc) $5
Bottle of glue: $5
polyurethane: $5

if a guy like ME can do it, so can you! i'm on bow #8 now. haven't worked my way up to a fiberglass laminate yet, but thats coming.

[Stiks-n-Strings]

I was wanting to do a lam bow and will in the future. But My uncle got me to making Osage shavings and I am hooked on it.
Get you a draw knife and go for it. I am in the middle of what I think is gonna be my first successful attempt. The failed attempts taught me a bunch and I still got alot to learn.
 I like woodworking so I am sticking with wood for now, no glass. But you have your cup of tea and I'll have mine. I like the glass bows just as much but I really love woodworking. Just as much woodworking in a glass lam bow but I don't want to fool with the glass right now.
If you are set on a glass bow there are just as many guys here to help as there are wood bow guys.

good luck and keep us posted.
Kris

[twitchstick]

Thanx everybody for the info. I now have alot to run with.